The U.S. Army is accelerating efforts to overhaul its logistics operations in the Indo-Pacific as it prepares for the possibility of conflict with China.
Speaking at the Association of the United States Army’s (AUSA) Land Forces Pacific symposium on Tuesday, Bill Moore, former head of the Defense Commissary Agency, acknowledged the military’s longstanding logistical challenges in the region.
“The Department of Defense has previously struggled to get U.S.-made diapers to commissaries in South Korea,” Moore noted.
During the symposium, officials noted that in a future conflict, victory will depend not only on manpower and advanced weaponry but also on the military’s ability to sustain operations while facing constant threats of disruption.
In recent years, the U.S. Army has shifted away from its traditional logistics model of stockpiling supplies at large, secure hubs—a strategy that proved effective in past conflicts like in Kuwait. In more recent years, the Army has increasingly relied on floating barges and prepositioned supplies in select partner nations, adopting a logistics model similar to the one used in Europe.
“We don’t need any more bases, but we need a lot more places – places that give us access, places to give us resources that we need for the combined Joint Force,” said Maj. Gen. Gavin Gardner, who heads the 8th Theater Sustainment Command.
“So there’s been a lot of decisions lately from Army policymakers…to really get the right equipment and stocks munitions set forward in this theater, west of the International Date Line,” he added.
Beyond logistics, the U.S. is expanding long-range precision strike capabilities. Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, emphasized that what he needs most are weapons systems capable of striking targets.
“The ability to deliver fast, accurate and lethal fires across domains is fundamental,” he said.
