DLA’s director of logistics visits DSCC

Air Force Maj. Gen. David Sanford made his first trip to Defense Supply Center Columbus since being tapped earlier this summer as the Defense Logistics Agency's director of logistics operations and commander of Joint Regional Combat Support.

In a site visit Aug. 21, Sanford met with DLA Land and Maritime Deputy Commander Kenneth Watson and senior leaders for operational briefings and facility tours. DLA Land and Maritime's mission is familiar to Sanford, who served as commander of sister organization DLA Aviation from 2019-2022. However, the visit presented an opportunity to gain valuable insights into the challenges the land and maritime supply chains face and where the organization seeks to grow efforts. The trip included a visit to the Product Test Center's electronics and mechanical testing labs.

Sanford, joined by Watson and a host of staff from the Engineering and Technical Support Directorate, toured both labs to get a sense of current capabilities and ongoing projects to expand future support. DSCC is home to two of DLA's three modern testing facilities. The PTCs perform professional scientific evaluations of products and related services, including product testing, technical support, and customer training to satisfy the requirements of a broad range of military and commercial applications.

Renee Magill, Engineering and Technical Support Directorate deputy director, noted significant investment has been made over the past several years to add capabilities. In 2020, the electronics lab increased its footprint and opened a new battery testing facility to evaluate battery samples for characteristics including dimension, temperature sensitivity and voltage level drain. The battery lab is eyeing another expansion in 2025 to add more testing stations and increase the types of batteries that can be tested in-house.

In the Mechanical Lab, renovations to update metallurgical facilities are currently ongoing and the dimensional testing section recently added new tech and a new capability - a gear tester - to its fleet of mechanical tests. The new machine measures a variety of intricate dimensions such as tooth spacing, tooth depth and pitch that would normally require vendors to purchase a master gear to verify.

Sandford said the visit was informative about DLA Land and Maritime's daily support to the enterprise. The day concluded with a tour of business continuity facilities.