Decision advantage takes center stage at 2024 NDTA-USTRANSCOM Fall Meeting

ST. LOUIS — Allies and partners are vital for achieving decision advantage and credible capacity in contested logistics, U.S. Transportation Command’s new commander, Air Force Gen. Randall Reed, said Oct. 10, at this year’s Fall Meeting.

The National Defense Transportation Association (NDTA) and USTRANSCOM hosted the event from Oct. 7-10, 2024. Military, industry, and government leaders gathered to discuss ways to improve transportation and logistics.

“As I look at the world and how we need to get things done, I can’t start with TRANSCOM,” Reed said. “I have to start with our allies and partners. It is our allies and partners that are like-minded with us, that have a shared view of what security should be, that provide us the local and regional access, basing and overflight.

“We can do amazing things together, ” Reed continued.

Those relationships extend to commercial partners, Reed said, referring to them as USTRANSCOM’s “Fourth Component,” working in tandem with the three military service component commands that support USTRANSCOM’s global missions.

“[Our industry partners] are the ones that are operating globally every day; you are the ones that know what the alternatives are and where the ports are,” Reed said. “The ‘Fourth Component’ … is the most critical component, providing [us] the depth and the duration of sustainment so that once we get into something, if somebody decides to start something, we can finish it, and we can finish it on our terms.”

On any given day, USTRANSCOM oversees more than 100 railcars, 30 ships, and 1,500 trucks delivering cargo. And about every two minutes, the combatant command has planes taking off or landing worldwide — hauling supplies, refueling aircraft, or moving patients. This capacity, Reed said, is only possible because of the deep relationship the command has fostered with the commercial industry.

As a form of appreciation for this support, USTRANSCOM presents the Pegasus Award at NDTA, which honors individuals or groups that are strong proponents of the command and its mission. The 2024 Pegasus Award honoring key USTRANSCOM’s mission advocates was presented to FedEx founder Fred Smith.

“[Smith’s] accomplishments exemplify our highest values,” Reed said.

Smith was also recently named the 2024 Military Times Veteran of the Year. Before founding FedEx, Smith was a Marine and Vietnam veteran, earning a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts.

Upon receiving the Pegasus award, Smith said that of the 11 combatant commands, USTRANSCOM is the “hub around which the rest of the military operates.” And he is “honored and privileged” to have maintained a business relationship with the Defense Department.

Following his keynote, Reed opened the floor to questions from the audience, addressing concerns about the future of logistics in contested environments. These centered on protecting commercial partners, sustaining a multi-front conflict, looming threats to national security, and more.

“Logistics is always contested,” Reed said. “If nothing else, it is the perfect home for Murphy’s Law.”

He continued that the global threat environment demands resilience abroad as well as at stateside. More than 80% of service members are stationed within the U.S. and its territories, and Reed warned that “we’ve lost” that feeling of being at risk in the homeland.

“The homeland is no longer a sanctuary,” Reed said, “we have great, great power in the kinetic realm, but the question will be how we continue to get stronger in the non-kinetic and gray zone realms.”

Reed concluded by affirming that USTRANSCOM’s future is “bright” thanks to the unity of the transportation community: “Together, we deliver.”