Military Strategic Planning of Transporting Supplies on the Battlefield

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Discussion3

Military Logistics Defined3

Three Levels of Logistics4

Strategic Level4

Operational level4

Tactical Level5

Importance of Logistics from History5

Processes and Procedures Involved6

Planning6

Movements Program6

Strategic Level Transportation7

Theatre Transportation7

Modes of Transport7

Conclusion7

References9

Military Strategic Planning of Transporting Supplies on the Battlefield

Introduction

Military logistics and decisions pertaining to it are the key to deciding the success of a mission. Military logistics is defined as the area or discipline of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of military forces, according to NATO (www.nato.int). Military logistics consists of different tasks including the transport of personnel, the transport, and distribution of equipment and other supplies to the battlefield and within the battlefield. It plays an important role in the sustenance of an army in the battlefield whether engaged in operations or not. The availability of supplies at the right place and at the right time is what military logistics must accomplish as it is the key to the success of an army's mission.

Discussion

In order to understand what military logistics really entails, the decisions that are required to be made, and the processes and procedures involved, it is imperative to look at the past and current experiences, and the current practices regarding this discipline.

Military Logistics Defined

The first formal definition of the term was given by Jomini (Kress, 2002, p. 3). Jomini defined logistics as the art of moving armies and proposed that in essence it is the execution of strategic and tactical enterprises.

Transport of resources including personnel, and facilities is an important part of logistics. Button (2010, p. 328) describes that the transportation of men and equipment in the battlefield at a timely and coordinated manner is what gives armies advantage in the battlefield.

Three Levels of Logistics

Henderson (2008, p. 21-23) describes the three levels of logistical operations according to the level of war, i.e. strategic, operational, and tactical levels.

Strategic Level

At this level national or multinational defense objectives are determined along with decisions regarding the development and use of national resources to accomplish these objectives. The role of logistics in the strategic level is to create links between the base which includes people, resources and industries, to military operations in the theatre (area or place where military events are taking place). At this level the focus of logistics is readiness of the troops to go into operation and supporting these operations. The main logistic functions at this level include providing Home Base support and services, air or sea mobility, stockpiles and prepositions resources, medical services and facilities.

Operational level

At this level major operations and campaigns are conducted to achieve the objectives at the strategic level. This level is also considered as the link between the tactical and strategic level. In operational level logistics focus is on theatre support operations including generation of the forces, sustainment of force and redeployment. Initially, the focus is on the development of a force that can conduct operations and when this force moves into operations the primary focus shifts to sustaining this force in ...