The U.S. Army's Logistics Model Is Unfit for Large-Scale Combat Operations

This article argues that the U.S. Army's logistics and sustainment model, optimized over two decades for permissive environments with uncontested supply lines and static forward operating bases, is fundamentally ill-suited for large-scale combat operations against peer adversaries. The author contends that in future multidomain operations against near-peer competitors, the Army's "efficiency-driven" logistics backbone will become a critical vulnerability, as it depends on permissive conditions that will not exist in contested environments. Victory in the next major conflict will hinge on which force can sustain combat power under persistent attack, not which has the most advanced weapons.