Simerly gets candid with employees in new leaders’ lunch series

FORT BELVOIR, Va. -

The character of warfare is changing and stirring an array of contested logistics challenges that employees must prepare now to overcome, the Defense Logistics Agency's director told eight future leaders during a small-group lunch July 24 at DLA Headquarters.

"If war breaks out tomorrow, do you know your role? We all need to be clear on what we're doing before that time comes," Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly said. "This is our call to action."

The session was the first in a series of bimonthly meetings in which the director plans to talk candidly with employees about issues like transforming the agency so it's ready to help the nation win future conflicts with adversaries like China and Russia.

An agencywide assessment conducted soon after Simerly's arrival as director in February revealed DLA's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from the perspectives of employees, warfighters and industry. The good news is that DLA has numerous strengths, he said. The majority of external partners agreed that DLA brings great value to their mission.

But many question whether the agency is ready to support the future fight.

"Internally, that means we need to create more understanding of warfighters' needs as they transform, and we must instill a sense of urgency," he said. "That doesn't mean we're going to put on uniforms and pick up weapons, but we've got a role to support those who are."

DLA's assessment pointed to strengths like employees' universal focus on warfighters and the agency's broad approach to logistics support, which includes whole-of-government partners and foreign allies. Strong ties with industry also enable DLA to support customers, but the shrinking supplier base is cause for concern.

"There are pressures on our industry partners, and we're heavily reliant on them to meet warfighters' needs. We do some things organically, but those things are pretty limited," the director said.

Although DLA's global posture has helped it support conflicts like the Cold War and the Global War on Terror, changing warfighter requirements and new adversarial threats demand that the agency appraise its current posture.

Even how DLA collects, shares, and uses data must shift, Simerly continued, adding that legacy tools and business practices must be replaced with ones that enable intelligent decision-making across the entire Defense Department.

On contested logistics, he said the nation's military has always been contested at the front lines of battle, but threats now target air, land, sea, space and cyber domains at all levels of war and in the homeland.

"And they'll be contested even greater if we go into conflict," he said. "You can see from our adversaries' actions and plans that they have capabilities and the intent to try to take down our logistics structure to cripple our ability to fight."

Simerly added that the agency can't rely on external players to tell it precisely how to transform.

"It's a challenge, but we just can't wait for somebody to tell us specifically how to change. It's always been that way. It always will be that way," he said.

The director welcomed participants' comments and questions, promising their feedback would remain private.

"But anything I say, you can share in any way you want to," he said. "I wouldn't say anything to you all here that I wouldn't say to anybody in a town hall, in a sidebar discussion, in a cafeteria or any other conference room."

Participants were from DLA Human Resources, DLA Logistics Operations, DLA Information Operations, DLA Acquisition, DLA Finance and the DLA Joint Reserve Force. Supervisors in each directorate will select future participants, who must be in grades GS-13 and below and be considered future leaders.

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