For defense logisticians, sequestration
means time and casualties
AS ALERT DC VELOCITY READERS ALREADY KNOW, ONE OF THE
things that distinguishes our magazine from the others in the logistics space is our coverage of the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD)
logistics operations. We’ve chosen to report on this subject for two
reasons. First, if you are a commercial sector logistics executive, you
are no doubt fascinated by the complexity, scope, and “mission critical” nature of defense logistics.
Second, the DOD’s logistics operation is huge. It represents over
$25 billion a year in transportation spending, much of it doled out to
commercial freight service providers. Let’s just say it’s big business,
America.
An important source of DOD-related story ideas
for DC VELOCITY are the annual conferences of the
two leading defense trade associations, the National
Defense Industry Association (NDIA) and the
National Defense Transportation Association
(NDTA). The events bring together the world’s
leading subject-matter experts from both the
defense community and the commercial logistics
community. Last year, the keynote speaker was
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin
Dempsey. (See our report on his 2012 NDIA presentation here: http://www.dcvelocity.com/arti-
cles/20120418-logistics-gains-street-cred/.)
This year, though, there will be no conferences. No NDIA. No
NDTA. Both events have fallen victim to sequestration cuts.
The cancellations didn’t really come as a surprise. For the last several months, mainstream media outlets have been full of news about
the budget battles in Washington. Last summer, we lived through the
game of chicken over the borrowing limit, leading to something
called sequestration, a dead man’s switch that would kick in if a budget agreement was not reached.
The can got kicked down the road.
At the end of 2012, we faced the fiscal cliff. Somehow we escaped
that one, and life went on. And, of course, the can was bounced a little farther down the road.
Now, we’re back to sequestration. The dead man’s switch tripped
March 1, budget cuts happened, and mostly, America yawned. The
Dow hit an all-time high, and so far, at least, teachers haven’t been laid
off, police are still on the streets, and the sun continues to rise each day.
But if you’re in the defense logistics business,
your can got stomped.
As soon as sequestration went into effect, Gen.
Dempsey issued a statement. “What I don’t know
is how long this will last,” he said. “Our elected
officials have options, and they will exercise those
options. They can exercise them over the next few
weeks, or they could exercise them over the next
few months. So we’re going to live with uncer-
tainty for a little while.”
And so will the rest of us. But
as hard as it’s going to be in the
defense logistics business, think
of the impact sequestration will
have on those in uniform.
In an NPR interview, Gen.
Dempsey described that
impact: “Two words: time and
casualties,” he said. “The way
this plays out, when you hollow
out readiness, it means that
when the force is needed, when
an option is needed to deal with
a specific threat, it would take
us longer to react to those. So
time is the issue. Some people would say, ‘So
what?’ Well, time generally translates into casualties in my line of work.
“We will weather this. The military is never
going to fail to answer the call when the nation is
threatened. So we will weather this, but shame on
us all if we weather it at the expense of those who
choose to serve in uniform.”
Your P&Ls may be splattered in red ink, but
our troops may really bleed. Say a prayer for
those who are standing in “the weather.”
