First Virtual NDTA-USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting emphasizes logistics’ innovation, resiliency, and leadership in the COVID era and beyond

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (Oct. 9, 2020) – “Innovative and Disruptive…20/20 Vision for the Future” served as the theme for the eighth annual, first-ever virtual National Defense Transportation Association (NDTA)-U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) Fall Meeting, Oct. 5-8, 2020.

 And the appropriate topic, particularly in this COVID age, resonated throughout the defense logistics forum’s approximately 77 Transportation Academy (TA) interactive courses, three roundtables, and five keynote presentations.

 For example, one of the 10 Transportation Academy focus tracks, Resilience, Innovation, and Disruptors, comprised of eight classes, directly communicated the event’s underlying message. 

Similarly, a training session involving a panel and moderated by U.S. Air Force Col. John Andrus, command surgeon, USTRANSCOM, titled “2020 Hindsight: Transporting Contagious Patients,” addressed the innovative leadership demonstrated by USTRANSCOM, the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, and the DOD in ensuring the availability of aircraft, equipment, and personnel to provide biocontainment transportation for every COVID-related global patient movement requirement. As one of 17 blocks of instruction in the DOD and Commercial Logistics focus area, this course also offered multiple perspectives on lessons learned, current endeavors, and preparations for the next pandemic.

“I can’t say enough about Air Mobility Command and everybody else that was involved in moving to pivot very quickly. It highlights we have the ability to do amazing things and is a matter of setting priorities,” said Andrus. “The first DOD contagious patient move was on 15 March 2020; since then, we have moved nearly 300 patients on over 50 missions.”

In addition, the conference’s three roundtables emphasized logistics’ innovation, resiliency, and leadership in the COVID era and beyond. Virtual panel discussions included “Adapting Logistics for the 21st Century – Technological Advancements, Evolving Requirements, COVID-19 Disruptors,” facilitated by U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Dee Mewbourne, deputy commander, USTRANSCOM; “Innovations Achieved in Spite of the Obstacles,” moderated by U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Jason France, senior enlisted leader, USTRANSCOM; and “Transportation Thru Space: A Look at Space Systems Logistics, Supply Chain Initiatives, and Capabilities,” guided by U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Steve Kwast, chief global officer and president, Genesis Systems, Limited Liability Company (LLC).  

As the Fall Meeting’s final roundtable, the space transportation panel, consisting of Dr. Greg Spanjers, chief scientist, Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory; Charles Miller, co-founder and chief executive officer of Lynk; U.S. Air Force Col. (Ret.) Gary Henry, senior director, National Security Space Solutions, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX); and Peter Garretson, senior fellow, Defense Studies, American Foreign Policy Council, and a strategy consultant who focuses on space and defense, discussed the advancements being accomplished by commercial industry and America’s adversaries. They also advocated taking advantage of evolving spacelift capabilities to globally move cargo.

“Rocket-based cargo transportation is only affordable if we can smartly leverage a commercial capability. We see those commercial capabilities emerging today. This changes our science and technology focus,” Spanjers stated. “We are not developing the rocket. Instead, we invest in adapting our DOD logistics and cargo to use the commercial system at the lowest possible cost.” 

And the five keynote speakers, featuring senior military, government, and industry leaders, also perpetuated the conference theme in their remarks. For instance, during his presentation, “A Sustainment Vision for the Future: Enhancing Innovation and Disruption to Advance,” which kicked off the keynote sessions Oct. 6, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, the Honorable W. Jordan Gillis, touched on a variety of defense logistics subjects. These included applying the lessons learned so far from this pandemic to future operations; resiliency comes with a cost, but the cost of not being resilient is greater; information technology will continue to be a critical element of resiliency in future conflicts; and identifying opportunities for the government and industry to collaborate and learn best practices.

“Gone are the days when we can count on people, equipment, and supplies getting to the fight unchallenged,” Gillis said. “We have to be ready for the fight to get to the fight.”

Another keynoter, U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, commander, USTRANSCOM, highlighted the command’s mission of projecting and sustaining combat power pre- and during the COVID-19 pandemic, provided updates on sealift recapitalization and the KC-46 weapon system, and discussed the organization’s investigation of space transportation through a cooperative research and development agreement with SpaceX.

“Our ability as a nation to project the joint force on a global scale is inextricably linked to our commercial industry partners. We want to make sure that we’ve got a steady drumbeat of collaboration and coordination with our industry partners, so that when a crisis hits, as it did this year, we know we have the confidence and trust in each other,” Lyons stated. “I could not be more proud of the Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, Coast Guardsmen, civilians, and industry partners that make up the power projection enterprise. I’m just a proud teammate that stands amongst you.”

Next year, the ninth annual NDTA-USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting occurs at National Harbor, Maryland, Oct. 18-21, 2021.

“I am so very proud of how all the hard work by so many made this virtual Fall Meeting a tremendous success—and yet surprisingly, it wasn’t as easy as ‘flip of the switch,” stated Jack Svoboda, USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting lead. “Ultimately, and true to this conference’s focus, i.e., amidst disruptions, innovations abounded and were refined into gold!”

USTRANSCOM exists as a warfighting combatant command to project and sustain military power at a time and place of the nation’s choosing. Powered by dedicated men and women, TRANSCOM underwrites the lethality of the Joint Force, advances American interests around the globe, and provides our nation's leaders with strategic flexibility to select from multiple options, while creating multiple dilemmas for our adversaries.