ASC hosts ammunition ROC drill

Feb 23, 2011

By Megan Marie McIntyre (ASC (AMC))

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. -- Army Sustainment Command headquarters hosted a rehearsal of concept drill Feb. 9-11, reviewing realigned ammunition operations.

Senior leaders from Army Materiel Command, Installation Management Command, Joint Munitions Command and Army Field Support Brigades joined their ASC hosts for a Directorate of Logistics ammunition ROC drill.

"The purpose of the ROC drill was to gather broad representation from the ammunition support community and establish roles and responsibilities for these stakeholders, as they pertain to ammunition support operations," said Sgt. Maj. Nicholas Castillo, Directorate of Logistics Transformation Team member and subject matter expert.

DOL Transformation Team members identified specific tasks involved with ammunition support operations and assigned responsible, accountable, supporting and informed lanes of responsibilities to each of the vested entities involved.

"From these, we will derive business rules, which, in turn, will provide standard guidance for ammunition supply operations on continental Unites States installations," said Castillo.

The objectives of the ROC drill included developing a common understanding of tasks, roles and responsibilities; developing common understanding of interaction from the tactical to strategic levels; developing input for mission execution, developing and agreeing on metrics; and identifying management and tactics, techniques and procedures, friction points and policy, and doctrinal changes to be made upon full operational control transforming to ASC.

"Some of the same issues came up for us as for the other participants of the ROC Drill, and we still don't know the outcome or solution for those," said Sita Seery, IMCOM-Pacific representative.

Some issues were identified and discussed and initial resolutions were agreed upon. Resolving most issues, however, will require further study.

"As with any new process, there are always issues and friction points that need to be addressed. As a group, we collectively identified several issues that will require further thought and evaluation, some at levels higher than ASC," said Castillo.

Currently the DOL realignment is in its final stages. Operational control of the DOLs in CONUS, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico became the responsibility of the Army Field Support Brigades and Battalions Oct. 1, 2010. Operational control of Korea and Japan DOLs was complete Jan. 1 and is planned for Europe DOLs for April 1. Complete realignment and full operational control is planned for Sept. 2012.

"A year and a half is not long to get everything in order. So we need to keep momentum moving forward," said Kathy Acree, Lead for the DOL Transformation Team.

The ammunition ROC drill is part of a series of ROC drills intended to keep the alignment on track and running smoothly.

"Overall the ROC drill was a great success. Gathering subject matter experts from the various echelons provided up-to-date and pertinent input into creating ASC guidance addressing ammunition supply support within CONUS," said Castillo.