Practical Sustainment Concepts for the Non-Linear Battlespace

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Figure 11: The functional and integrated chains of command Logistics Operations in COIN Contrary to the linear service battalion in the BSA, Log Ops in the COIN environment coordinates much more than only second line support. The cell becomes responsible for the constant shift of resources between functional and integrated roles, across all lines of support in the area of responsibility (AOR). When manoeuvre elements deploy, Log Ops must have the flexibility to develop a sustainment plan that sees the attribution of appropriate IST in an IS role. When the unit returns to the nodes for reconstitution, then Log Ops reassigns the resources back along the functional chain of command, back to a more general support role. The role of the functional subunit commanders is nonetheless the key throughout the process in advising the overall commander on the capabilities resident in their organizations, in order that the most appropriate teams are deployed. In a sense, Log Ops coordinates the constant reattribution of resources between functional subunits as sustainment generators, and a separate integrated chain of command as the sustainment employer in support of deployed operations. The task of Log Ops has also increased with respect to the conduct of link operations, which must be thoroughly integrated in the manoeuvre plan. CLPs are elements that provide not only the Sustain combat function, but also Sense and even Act. Sustainment operations have taken on a moreover operational flavour, and consequently have to be coordinated by the Ops (J3) staff, as opposed to the Log (J4) staff. Because CLPs are working in exactly the same areas as the manoeuvre elements are conducting Act operations, Log Ops now has to synchronize with all other manoeuvre elements through the higher headquarters. Log Ops also requires an intelligence cell (S2) to provide the most up to date and appropriate intelligence picture to the outgoing CLPs. The S2 is required to process and synchronize the significant “red” (enemy), “white” (civilian), “brown” (environmental) and “green” (obstacle) intelligence that is being produced by the patrols for the protection of all deployed elements. CLPs have to be synchronized with the Intelligence Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) plan in order to coordinate requests for information (RFIs) from the higher headquarters and process the information being collected. In short, the NSE requires an operations centre similar to any other 58 Canadian Army Journal Vol. 11.2 Summer 2008
manoeuvre organization, in addition to the coordination capabilities associated with specific support services. Limited Resource Management In the linear battlefield, resources are attributed to units that are spread out laterally on the ground, and it is unfeasible to consider the sharing of resources between several manoeuvre units, for day to day support. However, COIN operations often see the collocation of units in a single node, which offers possibilities about the more efficient use of limited resources to support many organizations. By virtue of their proximity, it is possible to consider the sharing of resources (i.e. integrated sustainment teams) among all units represented in a given node. On the other hand, it would be feasible to have separate sustainment organizations for each of the resident units. At the extreme, one could consider the deployment of dedicated kitchen facilities, fuel farms and medical stations, each for platoon-sized elements of the BG, Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (OMLT) and PRT that are collocated on a given FOB. However, in this day of extremely limited resources, and the emphasis on the deployment of manoeuvre elements, this is likely difficult to justify. Nonetheless, these are all solutions that are feasible in this non-linear model. Figure 12: The spectrum of sustainment resource attributions, as a function of the number of CSS personnel required to complete a given support concept. As one moves from left to right in the Figure 12, the creation of IS structures within separate units is not as simple as the cleaving of resources from the parent sustainment organization. The creation of a sustainment sub-organization in the manoeuvre unit requires an additional overhead in the form of command and control, as well as resources required to manage the addition burden of coordination at the formation level, as mentioned above. There is a critical amount of resources that have to be injected into the sustainment system in order to scission off a separate IS organization. This may be called the principle of scissiparity 5 . In the end, the numbers of the parent sustainment organization decrease, but with an overall increase in total sustainment resources. A very clear relationship can be seen between the sustainment resources required and the Canadian Army Journal Vol. 11.2 Summer 2008 59
Page 1 and 2: PRACTICAL SUSTAINMENT CONCEPTS FOR
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Practical Sustainment Concepts for the Non-Linear Battlespace

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