Several factors are coming together to make logistics — which rarely gets attention in official Washington — one of the hot buttons of 2005. The lessons of Iraq already compel the military to quickly improve its logistics. In the near future, U.S. forces will maneuver faster, wider and deeper, increasing demands on their logistical support. In future years, those challenges will multiply as the Sea Basing concept comes to life, relying on a leading-edge logistics system that will enable field commanders to order parts by signaling computers at the Sea Base. Those orders will be filled by an advanced parts management system based on barcode technology and robots that locate the needed parts and pull out the correct containers. In response to urgent orders, operators will send containers to the flight deck to be picked up by helicopter and dropped to “customer” units in the battle area. Other parts and supplies will go over the side to high-speed vessels that ferry them to transfer points, where they will be sent onward to tactical forces.

Sea Power Correspondent Arthur P. Brill Jr. reports (p. 12) that the Marine Corps already is creating a logistics system for the future. In a series of frank interviews, top Marine leaders said their legacy systems failed on the battlefield in Iraq and are being replaced with a web-based scheme that will consistently resupply their fast-moving units all the way to the forward edge of the battlefield. Lt. Gen. Richard L. Kelly, deputy commandant for installations and logistics, told Brill that Marine logisticians are in for “a huge cultural change, but there is no reason we can’t be as great as other parts of the Marine air-ground team. Someday, I want Federal Express to ask us how we do business.”

Elsewhere in this issue, Associate Editor Hunter C. Keeter files a revealing report (p. 16) on the Navy’s need for better aerial refueling from the Air Force, and Managing Editor Richard R. Burgess covers the Aerial Common Sensor program to build an intelligence and reconnaissance plane for the Navy and Army (p. 36). Two industry teams, locked in a fierce competition for the services’ business, offer contract officials some starkly different options as the program approaches its next milestone.

Our special report this month (pp. 20-31) is on the Coast Guard, which must resolve fundamental budget and scheduling issues with its giant Deepwater system, as the services’ ships and planes deteriorate at a pace far faster than anticipated.

We think this is an exciting issue that contains analysis and information unavailable anywhere else, and we hope you agree. As always, thanks for reading Sea Power.

Richard C. Barnard
Editor in Chief

We are eager to get your feedback. Contact me at rbarnard@navyleague.org or by mail at Sea Power, 2300 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22201-3308.