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Joint command tracks supply shipments using technology
By KERRY L. SMITH

   SCOTT AFB - If you're a frontline warfighter or a team waiting for humanitarian relief, the necessity of knowing which supplies are coming - and when - is vital.

   In Afghanistan and other combat territories, the military is embracing technology to improve in-transit visibility; that technology is in the form of the U.S. Transportation Command's Global Transportation Network.

   In practical terms, with the click of a computer mouse, a supply sergeant can assure his commander that a much-needed shipment of parts from the U.S. is landing on an airstrip in Kabul and will arrive at the base the following day.

   In addition to numerous Department of Defense transportation and supply systems, more than 40 commercial companies feed the GTN with movement information of DOD cargo through electronic data interchange, from mission scheduling through execution.

   "Our focus is the warfighter, or in business terms, the customer," said Lori Jones, civilian chief of logistics operations at USTRANSCOM on the grounds ofScott Air Force Base. "Our objective is to provide the customer - or warfighter - an accurate picture of what's moving."

   Created and launched in the early 1990s, the GTN's benefits are clear, especially when compared to the separate item-by-item, serial number-by-serial number inventory and tracking process each branch of the armed services used as recently as during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

   "Poor cargo documentation was a major problem during Desert Shield/Desert Storm," said Col. Donald P. Hart, military chief of logistics operations at USTRANSCOM.

   "Approximately 40 percent of the containers of supplies sent to the port of Ad Dammam, Saudi Arabia, that war effort had to be reopened, just to see what was in them. With the Global Transportation Network, we're trying to make sure that doesn't happen again.

   "Our military strategy is dependent on the ability to deploy and sustain the force," Hart said. "Knowing where assets are - when in-transit from home station or vendor warehouse to the foxhole - is critical."

   Jones said GTN is the Department of Defense's system for providing this capability. As efforts are made to maintain movement velocity and ensure the customer's requirements are met, the informational needs remain constant.

   Timely, complete and accurate data in GTN, Jones said, is critical to making informed decisions about the onward movement and sustainment of the force.

   Streamlining the process of shipping supplies to their destinations across the globe, Jones said, while improving the quality of the data tracking these shipments, is what the GTN was created to do.

   "For example, the DOD is making real strides in the employment of automatic identification technology," she said. "This dramatically improves data capture at the source of the supply or transportation function, it improves port-processing throughput and it enhances data quality in GTN. Wherever possible, we are leaning forward with our commercial partners to advance the fidelity of information being provided, to effectively and efficiently execute the war."

   Supplies delivered to our operations in Korea are loaded on a truck and taken to a warehouse, where each is identified electronically and inventoried right then and there," she said. "Linear bar codes are two-dimensional and can store a lot more information about the items."

   Blending U.S. military expertise - such as those whose experience includes being at the receiving end of supply shipments - with civilians trained in commercial applications of information technology creates a hybrid corps of experts who continue to integrate technological advances such as the GTN into real-world significance in terms of wartime needs.

   "The Department of Defense has made some real improvements since Desert Storm," Hart said. "It's not perfect, but we're continuing to work it and work it hard."

   Another recent ITV capability, Jones said, is using satellite technology to aid in the real-time tracking of military assets.

   "Integrating satellite capability into the process and using the GTN to increase in-the-container visibility is a major focus of our work," she said.