DOD uses tech for logistics

To improve ordering and delivering supplies to troops in Iraq, the Defense Department's new operations facility in Kuwait has an information technology unit that uses Web technologies to merge existing supply systems.

Officials from the Deployment and Distribution Operation Center can access and track clothing, ammunition, water and hygiene goods en route to the Middle East, said Army Brig. Gen. John Levasseur, DDOC director. He also serves as director for reserve mobilization in the Defense Logistics Agency's Joint Reserve Force.

"The DDOC members leveraged the operational architecture, systems and equipment used to execute the Defense Department's strategic logistics mission," Levasseur said. "These systems enabled DDOC professionals to immediately improve logistics performance."

Created in January by DLA, the new center is the first logistics operation to tap employees from all military agencies. The 63-person facility supports Central Command, the military's unified combatant organization that oversees warfighting plans and programs from eastern Africa to southwest Asia including the Middle East, he said.

During the past four months, DDOC decreased supply delivery times from weeks to days. Because of its success in Iraq, the military's eight other combatant commands that oversee military responsibilities around the world want the new logistics operation center, Levasseur said.