Defense Logistics Agency Director Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly has presented a new strategic plan to address logistics challenges in the land, sea, air, space and cyber domains.
Speaking at the recent Defense Logistics and Support conference, Simerly discussed how the return of great power competition has impacted logistics operations in all domains, highlighting the importance of maintaining supply chain integrity to sustain operational readiness in contested environments, DLA said Thursday.
The 2025-2030 strategy involves investing in organizational resilience and skillsets to increase workforce readiness to support warfighters during conflicts and promoting logistics interoperability and establishing stronger partnerships across the Joint Logistics Enterprise through logistics planning dialogues and data and predictive analytics.
Adarryl Roberts, DLA’s chief information officer, also spoke at the conference to discuss the agency’s use of data analytics and artificial intelligence to increase operational efficiency, predict future requirements, and optimize supply chains and warfighter readiness.
“Data interoperability and creating data decision advantage is not just for DLA but postures us to support the defense industry and our NATO allied partners,” Roberts said.
According to Kenneth Watson, DLA land and maritime deputy commander, the Covid-19 pandemic escalated new supply chain challenges, including procuring repair parts for legacy weapon systems and military vehicles.
Watson pointed to industry partner reductions in the defense industrial base as one of the reasons for the procurement challenges but noted that the DLA is now looking for new companies to do business with.
He shared that the DLA Land & Maritime recently hosted a manufacturing summit for small businesses to inform them about the items the Department of Defense has trouble producing.