The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

The U.S. military does not have an exact equivalent
to this Chinese term, but the integration of civil
support is embedded into U.S. military logistics operational
concepts, such as: 33
• Integrated logistic support (ILS)—“composite
of all the support considerations necessary to
assure the effective and economical support of
a system for its life cycle. It is an integral part
of all other aspects of system acquisition and
operation.” 34
• Integrated materiel management (IMM)—
“exercise of total DoD-level management
responsibility for a federal supply group or
class, commodity, or item for a single agency.
It normally includes computation of requirements,
funding, and budgeting, storing, issuing,
cataloging, standardizing, and procuring
functions.” 35
As a global expeditionary force engaged in multiple
long-term operations, the U.S. military logistics system
has developed complex and adaptable systems
that link together the support capabilities of the various
services, federal support, commercial off-the-shelf
(COTS) acquisition, host-nation support, contracted
support, as well as research, development and acquisition
of equipment and systems to support global operational
requirements. 36
Throughout the U.S. military logistics system, a
complex set of laws and regulations governing command
and control have been developed to integrate
civil-military capability for peacetime and wartime
operations. At the Joint level, for example, U.S. logistics
seek to integrate core Joint logistic capabilities
(supply, maintenance operations, deployment and dis-
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