INTRODUCTION
Logistics preparation of the battlefield is the process of gathering data against pertinent battlefield components, analyzing their impact on sustainment, and integrating them into tactical planning so that support actions are synchronized with maneuver. It is a conscious effort to identify and assess those factors which facilitate, inhibit, or deny support to combat forces.
Just as intelligence preparation of the battlefield is important to the conduct of actual combat operations, logistics preparation of the battlefield is equally important to sustaining the combat power of the force. Although it may be true that even the most optimal support plan may not win the battle, it is also true that poorly planned support can certainly lose it! Working together, task force (TF) leaders must synchronize support actions with maneuver in a unified plan so that logistics is a factor in the success of a mission rather than a cause of failure.
In addition to mission, enemy, terrain, troops and time available (METT-T), logistics preparation of the battlefield focuses on determining the status and impact of the specific components that make up tactical logistics. It assesses how time and space requirements and restrictions of the battlefield affect support. This newsletter shows how battlefield data, when systematically collected and processed, provide meaningful information for the development of effective logistics estimates.
The process requires tacticians to understand the data needed by logisticians to plan and provide timely, effective support. It requires TF logisticians to understand the mission, the tactical plan, and the battlefield's time and space implications for support. It is a coordinated effort to prepare the battlefield logistically. The basic steps in systematizing the process are:
- Determine battlefield data pertinent to support actions.
- Determine sources from which raw data can be derived.
- Gather pertinent data.
- Analyze collected data elements and translate them into decision information by assessing their impact on the mission and the competing courses of action.
- Integrate decision information into tactical planning by incorporating it in logistics estimates and TF plans and orders.
Table
of Contents
Foreword
Section
I - Components of Tactical Logistics
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NEWSLETTER
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