DOD Developing Regional Sustainment Framework in Indo-Pacific

In coordination with Indo-Pacific allies, the U.S. military is launching a regional sustainment framework to begin development of a global network of regionally aligned maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities, DOD officials said yesterday.

Christopher J. Lowman, the assistant secretary of defense for sustainment, and Lisa P. Smith, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for product support, announced the framework during a Pentagon briefing.

The guiding principle is to place sustainment capabilities close to where they are needed, Lowman said. This is all about repairing damaged or non-mission capable equipment back into service. The idea is focused on enhancing the military capabilities of the joint force and also "enhancing the capabilities of regional partners and strengthening those regional partnerships through the regional sustainment framework," Lowman said.

DOD is working with five different Indo-Pacific nations on fielding these regional sustainment centers. The regional partners must have the overall capability to repair U.S. joint force equipment, and that of similarly equipped allied and partner armed forces, he said.

These sustainment centers would be close to the need. In the Indo-Pacific this would eliminate the need to ship equipment from the Philippines, for example, to the United States for repair or refurbishment.

All this would strengthen U.S. relationships with regional allies, Lowman said. It would also increase readiness of deployed American forces. A further effect is to enhance military readiness through collaboration with the U.S. industrial base. "Ultimately this will deter aggression," the assistant secretary said. "We do believe, by implementing multiple options for a theater commander to use in terms of redirecting unserviceable flows to repair capabilities creates higher level of uncertainty within adversaries' planning cycles and thereby enhancing deterrence and the deterrence value."

Indo-Pacom is the focus this year. U.S. European Command will be the focus in 2025 and U.S. Southern Command in 2026. U.S. Central Command and U.S. Africa Command will follow, he said.

Smith said the framework is needed in response "to changing global threats to augment the traditional model of sustainment."

The framework supports U.S. National Defense Strategy priorities and objectives "by strategically engaging with our allies and partners to bring critical weapons system maintenance, repair and overhaul capability and capacity closer to the forward deployed point of need."