PROMOTING LOGISTICS INTEROPERABILITY IN PACIFIC

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 
U.S.-Australia System Promotes Logistics Interoperability
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2013 - A new logistics tracking system between the United States and Australia will help to ensure faster, more coordinated responses to humanitarian crises and other contingencies while laying the foundation for closer cooperation across the Asia-Pacific region, the senior U.S. Pacific Command logistics director reported.
Pacom, through its U.S. Army Pacific component, and the Australian defense force launched the Pacific Radio Frequency Identification System in April, Air Force Brig. Gen. Mark M. McLeod reported during a telephone interview from the command headquarters at Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii.
The system incorporates technologies commercial retailers have come to rely on to track their goods from the manufacturer to warehouses and into buyers' hands, McLeod explained.

It also leverages capabilities NATO introduced about three years ago with the standup of a network exchange hub that promotes information sharing about supply shipments bound for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

The NATO system uses radio-frequency identification to automatically locate and track shipments through ISAF-member supply chains. Nations connected to a routing hub in Luxembourg transmit logistics data to other users, giving the entire supply chain real-time visibility on the shipments.

The Pacific Radio Frequency Identification system introduces this capability into the Pacom theater to support rotational U.S. Marine Corps forces in Darwin, Australia, and expanded military-to-military cooperation across the region, McLeod said.

The Defense Department has long used barcode technology to monitor the flow of everything from washers and nuts for a particular aircraft to armored vehicles, he explained. This gives logisticians the ability to track shipments throughout the transportation process and keep tabs on inventory stocks.

The new system takes this effort a step further. It uses radio frequency identification technology to "read" barcode information on both U.S. and Australian military equipment and supplies. Australian RFID readers recognize the barcodes affixed to U.S. shipments flowing through Australia, then automatically transmits the information to the NATO routing hub. U.S. logisticians can then monitor the flow of equipment or shipments through delivery.

"It gives everybody near-real-time access," McLeod said. "When an individual supply-line item passes along a tracking device, it is automatically read up into a database and distributed. There is literally just a matter of seconds involved in the transmission of the information to everyone's servers about where their equipment is."

The new logistics partnership saves the United States the cost of deploying and installing its own RFID systems in Australia at an estimated cost of about $560,000 over the next five years, McLeod said.

"This is a big win for U.S. and Australian forces operating in the Pacific, McLeod said. "This is 'Pacific Rebalance' in action."

With a U.S. defense strategy focused heavily on the Asia-Pacific region and expanded U.S. engagement across the theater, the system supports closer U.S.-Australian interoperability during exercises, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions and other contingencies, he said.

The system also provides a framework that could be expanded in the future to include more regional allies and partners, he said. "This is another example of how partner-nation logistics cooperation effectively and efficiently expands military reach and capability in the Asia-Pacific region," the general added.

Historically, the military has struggled with two primary obstacles to logistics-information technology: incompatible systems that made sharing difficult, and security protocols that limited what information could be shared, and with whom.

The since-dissolved U.S. Forces Command came up with an initial logistics information-sharing system about seven years ago, McLeod said. It required users from one country to email information to their partner-nation counterparts, who downloaded the file and uploaded it onto their own system.

"It was a clunky way of transmitting information, and not in real time," McLeod said. "It depended on how much manpower and how much time you had, so it wasn't an effective or efficient way of sharing information."

The United States and Australia previously attempted to share logistics information using a direct link between their systems, but got bogged down by servers that had trouble talking to each other and accreditation processes that were slow and cumbersome.

They abandoned the project in early 2011 in favor of the current one that leverages NATO capabilities.

"The system is fully operational right now," McLeod said. "It was turned on in early April, and it is up and running."

McLeod emphasized the importance of logistics information-sharing, particularly during the U.S. pivot to the Asia-Pacific region. "Knowing the times and dates when things are going to arrive empowers all the processes that we have in military logistics," he said. "Efficient and integrated international supply chains aren't just important to Wal-Mart. They are critical enablers for warfighters as well."

This capability will be particularly valuable, he said, in the event that nations need to work together to respond to a natural disaster such as the Operation Tomodachi in Japan.

"We are looking more and more toward our partners and our partner capacity to integrate with us and be more fully interoperable," he said. "This is one of those empowering enabler technologies that allow us to do that."

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PANETTA SPEAKS ON PACIFIC COMMAND AND CHANGES

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta speaks to troops and civilian employees of U.S. Pacific Command headquarters on Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii, May 31, 2012. Panetta is on a 10-day trip to the Asia Pacific to meet with defense counterparts. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo  

Pacific Command Stands at Forefront of Defense Change, Panetta Says
By Jim Garamone
CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii, May 31, 2012 - The personnel at U.S. Pacific Command are at the forefront of changes to American defense strategy, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said here today.

The secretary spoke to about 300 members of the command in front of the Nimitz-MacArthur headquarters building. The command has a huge role, "in promoting peace and prosperity and security throughout the Asia-Pacific region," Panetta said.

The new defense strategy will play out particularly in the Pacific, the secretary said. "It is going to be in your hands," he told them.

The secretary said new strategic guidance protects a strong military for the future while still cutting $487 billion over 10 years. Cuts to the military must be done carefully and must maintain the military capabilities needed to counter the possible threats. Officials used the strategic guidance to form the budget, and it was done carefully.

"The last damn thing I want to do is hollow out the force," Panetta said. "I want to ensure that we maintain the strongest military in the world, and I want to make sure that we don't break trust with those who have put their lives on the line -- you. What we promised you we will stick to."

The key elements of the strategy are at play in the Asia-Pacific region, he said. The American military must be more agile, more flexible and more deployable, and it must maintain capabilities on the cutting edge of technology.

"We've got to focus on where the main threats are," Panetta said. "That means we continue to focus on the Pacific region and the Middle East, because that's where the potential problems are for the future."

But the U.S. military has worldwide commitments and forces must show the flag in other parts of the world. "The way to do that is develop these kind of creative rotational movements that allow us to go into countries and be able to work with countries to develop their capabilities," he said.

The U.S. must be able to confront and defeat multiple threats at the same time. "If we have to fight a war in Korea at the same time we have to fight in the Middle East, we can do that, and we have to be able to do that," he said.

Finally, the strategy isn't just about cutting, but investing. The U.S. must invest in cyber capabilities, invest in space and invest in the technologies that make the military more agile and deployable.

Panetta stressed that service members are the key to the strategy. "It's because of you we really are at a turning point," he said. "We brought the war in Iraq to an end, we've given Iraq the opportunity to govern and secure itself."

There is also a plan to responsibly withdraw from Afghanistan, the secretary said.
"There is tough fighting ahead, but we are headed in the right direction," Panetta said. "We have successfully gone after al-Qaida, we[have]successfully gone after bin Laden and their leadership, and we've made very clear that nobody attacks the United States and gets away with it – nobody."

There is still a threat from al-Qaida but it has shifted to Yemen, Somalia and North Africa. And U.S. pressure has meant the organization cannot plan with impunity, he said.

"Look at the last 10 years, and we have something to point to because of those who were willing to serve, to put their lives on the line," he said. "Because of those who did everything we asked them to do, we are making the world safer."