Commercial Logistics Critical to U.S. Global Power Projection (From RealClearDefense)

When government officials and defense experts speak of the United States’ ability to project military power globally they usually make reference to this nation’s dominance in warfighting capabilities, such as aircraft carriers, amphibious warfare ships, strategic bombers or advanced fighters. Without question, all of these capabilities are important constituent elements of a superpower military. However, it takes logistics for these U.S. fleets, systems and capabilities to go anywhere, fight anyone and stay there, for years and decades. The real secret to the Department of Defense’s ability to move, supply and support modern military forces, both its own and those of allies and friends, in multiple theaters on the other side of the world simultaneously, rests in the support it receives from private sector companies. I have written about this for RealClearDefense here.