OKLAHOMA CITY — U.S. Transportation Command’s deputy commander, Army Lt. Gen. John Sullivan, addressed government and industry leaders at the National Logistics Forum on Feb. 7, discussing strategic mobility’s critical role in bolstering national and global security.
This year’s forum, themed “Integrated Deterrence: Driven by Logistics,” focused on the complex challenges logisticians face in deploying and sustaining the joint force, particularly in today’s competitive global environment.
In his remarks, Sullivan highlighted the strategic advantage USTRANSCOM’s logistical capabilities and networks provide the nation and asserted the enterprise’s importance to national security and global stability.
“Our ability as a nation to rapidly deploy credible combat power worldwide and sustain that combat power over extended lines of communication has set us apart from our competitors and potential adversaries for many decades,” Sullivan said. “We all recognize, however, that the operating environment has changed, and our ability to freely operate across all domains is increasingly contested.”
As part of USTRANSCOM’s overall mobility posture, Sullivan highlighted the commercial sector’s role in supporting the combatant command and national security, particularly in air and sea operations.
“We at USTRANSCOM consider our commercial industry partners as our ‘fourth component,’ in light of the tremendous capacity they bring to bear in accomplishing our missions,” Sullivan stated. “This capacity is crucial because the joint mobility capabilities I have described here are not infinite. Freeing up strategic lift allows leaders to allocate it to other more critical commodities, in particular ammunition, precision munitions and force protection.”
In response to today’s contested logistics environment, Sullivan emphasized integrating advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to create decision advantage now for tomorrow’s challenges.
“We understand that mobility capacity — and by that, I mean sufficient mobility platforms and crews — is only part of the answer,” Sullivan said. “We must also modernize capabilities in areas like data management, analytics and communications.”
Sullivan noted that a key component in this strategic shift is the construction of Pegasus, a community space within the Defense Department’s cloud environment.
Pegasus has opened the door for data accessibility, comprehension and utility for analytical and artificial intelligence applications.
“Critical to this transformation is building the right data foundation,” Sullivan said.
He also mentioned applications and data analytical tools that USTRANSCOM has developed in partnership with MITRE and MIT Lincoln Labs to support critical mission sets. These include the capability to assess and allocate lift against competing global demands and support USTRANSCOM’s new Unified Command Plan mission as DOD’s Single Manager for global bulk fuel management and delivery.
Sullivan also mentioned the upcoming solicitation for the Joint Transportation Management System, which would involve business reform and procuring an enterprise resource planning solution to provide complete visibility of transportation movements and mitigate enduring auditability gaps.
As he closed his remarks, Sullivan stressed the importance of continuous collaboration between government, academia and commercial industry to overcome contested logistics challenges, especially in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We at USTRANSCOM completely embrace DOD’s intent to accelerate more data-informed decision-making, increase visibility across our distribution networks, and widen the aperture on modernizing our mobility capabilities, “Sullivan said. “We are pleased with the progress to date, but there is much work to be done still.”
About USTRANSCOM
U.S. Transportation Command is a warfighting combatant command that projects and sustains military power at a time and place of the nation’s choosing. USTRANSCOM 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 dilemmas for our adversaries.
