{"id":30081,"date":"2024-02-13T14:36:50","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T14:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2024\/02\/13\/lighten-the-load-the-armys-plan-to-save-time-by-shedding-excess-gear\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:17:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:17:37","slug":"lighten-the-load-the-armys-plan-to-save-time-by-shedding-excess-gear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/battlefield-tech\/2024\/02\/13\/lighten-the-load-the-armys-plan-to-save-time-by-shedding-excess-gear\/","title":{"rendered":"Lighten the load: The Army\u2019s plan to save time by shedding excess gear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The days of stuffing Conex boxes full of any and all gear on hand and shipping them to a combat zone are over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army wants sleeker formations. The service is modernizing everything from night vision and rifles to tanks and artillery. There\u2019s no more room in the supply section for unused gear that\u2019s piled up over the recent wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that gear is more than an eyesore: it\u2019s a time suck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the service prepares for the possibility of a conventional war, the one thing soldiers can\u2019t spare is time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every set of outdated optics, old M4s or obsolete radios add up to days each month that soldiers have to drag out, inventory and maintain gear they don\u2019t use. And those days rob soldiers of training time on basic skills and new equipment needed to fight the next war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears that top Army leaders feel their pain. A recent pilot program now making its way across the force aims to clear out the junk cluttering a unit\u2019s space and free up time for soldiering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commanders a generation ago might have kept a \u201cproperty book\u201d with five to 10 pages of equipment. Today, their counterparts at operational units such as the 82nd Airborne Division, 3rd Infantry Division and 2nd Cavalry Regiment now tote books with 50, 70, or more than 100 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA company commander in the 82nd Airborne can carry a property book of 50 pages or more,\u201d Capt. Stephen Glynn, headquarters company, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division told Army Times. \u201cThat book alone accounts for 3,200 pieces of equipment that he or she must inventory, clean, and maintain throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That could mean more than 200 rifles and optics, 45 handguns, 35 vehicles and thousands of other pieces of gear, ranging from communications equipment to chemical protection kits and other mission essential tools and supplies for a single company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not all of that is essential any longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The 82nd Special Troops Battalion along with the 82nd Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade prep equipment for the Rapid Removal of Excess Pilot Program (R2E), Fort Liberty, N.C., Oct 30, 2023. (Sgt. Vincent Levelev\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Much of the growing property list for these combat units are holdovers from decades of Global War on Terrorism deployments, commanders said. And a complicated process for ditching unnecessary or unserviceable equipment has, for years, stymied unit leaders\u2019 efforts to trim their books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George took office in September, he laid out clear priorities<\/a> \u2014 warfighting, continuous transformation, strengthening the profession and delivering ready combat formations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George has commanded at all levels, from tactical to strategic. He\u2019s had his soldiers roll out warehouses full of gear, unpackage it, handle inventory and account for thousands of items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLaying out, counting it, you only have to do it once or twice to know how painful it is,\u201d George told Army Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time he took over, he also announced a pilot program, later called Rapid Removal of Excess, from which he expected quick results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chief\u2019s directive was far-reaching. He told his staff to identify two divisions, one light and one heavy, in the same corps. Larger Army formations such as Army Materiel Command, Forces Command and Army headquarters would support those divisions over a 90-day period while they cut excess from their inventory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move \u2014 clearing out old gear \u2014 may seem administrative, but there\u2019s a bigger plan at play, George said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to improve our readiness,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously if you\u2019re out on today\u2019s battlefield you need to be able to move, you need to be able to conceal yourself, you\u2019re dragging all of this stuff around. If you\u2019re significantly leaner, you\u2019re significantly less targetable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By cutting down on how much time and energy officers, and by extension, rank-and-file soldiers, spend sorting through warehouses full of gear nobody uses, they\u2019ll be freed up to focus on the many other demands already on their plates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Soldiers inventory tents and camoflauge netting at Storck Barracks in Illesheim, Germany, Sept. 24, 2020. (Staff Sgt. Garrett L. Dipuma\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Reducing the burden on soldiers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For generations, the Army has dictated what equipment various kinds of units must keep in their inventory. At the same time, each unit may be tasked with a new mission or duty that then adds more to that load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically, a unit commander inventories about 10% of their gear each month throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equipment that they had to track but didn\u2019t use, sometimes for years, could stack up. The sheer volume of gear created storage problems, and spilled over into areas originally meant for training. It also meant time spent maintaining that gear, which had to be kept intact, clean and in working order, just in case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time, getting rid of anything was an uphill battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maj. Brian Campbell, executive officer of 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne, told Army Times that getting permission to remove the equipment required approval all the way up the unit chain of command, from company to division or even corps. Simply getting the green light could take months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major hurdle every commander faced was the requirement that equipment couldn\u2019t be turned in until it was in operational condition. That meant spending time cleaning, fixing and ordering any missing or broken parts, which ate up time, money and led to a backlog that stalled the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The equipment removal pilot reversed those requirements. Soldiers from Army Materiel Command, Forces Command and the 3rd Expeditionary Support Corps, the unit responsible for coordinating sustainment operations for XVIII Airborne Corps, the parent unit of 3rd Infantry Division and 82nd Airborne, the two divisions chosen for the program\u2019s first iteration, set up mobile sites at Fort Liberty, North Carolina and Fort Stewart, Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also waived the maintenance requirement so soldiers could bring in gear \u201cas is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, drive it, tow it, drag it down, we will take it and they are immediately relieved of that excess equipment,\u201d said Eric Cowan, a longtime logistician with Army Materiel Command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move quantifiably streamlined the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one example, a typical Humvee turn in, which would include a detailed inspection, could take two to three hours on average. Through the pilot process it took about 15 minutes, said Col. David Alvarez, 3rd Expeditionary Support Corps assistant chief of staff for support operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with 800 \u201crolling stock\u201d items \u2014 Humvees, trailers, mobile generators \u2014 turned in by the two divisions, that time adds up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glynn had a Humvee that his unit had been trying to get rid of for five years, long before he took command. But the maintenance and permissions just never aligned. Three weeks into the pilot, the Humvee was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the support corps commander, Brig. Gen. John Hinson, and 82nd Airborne Deputy Commanding Officer Col. Jason Williams told Army Times that the key to coordinating so many units to turn in so much equipment in about 35 working days involved treating it like an operation. Units even conducted rehearsals before the pilot kicked off, noting which units would bring their gear in when and how much they expected to offload.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past, Williams said, getting rid of gear was seen as something the executive officers, unit logistics sections and supply sergeants would take care of while everyone else was out training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this pilot, instead of dragging out the inventory on a continuous basis, soldiers at Fort Liberty and Fort Stewart spent several days clearing out old and unused gear in one fell swoop. Despite the arduous \u2014 and monotonous \u2014 task, this means that future gear checks will be shorter and more seamless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Spc. Kyle Doyle, a truck driver with 110th Composite Truck Company, lays out his gear for an inventory inspection in preparation for a rapid deployment to the areas affected by Hurricane Florence in 2018. (Sgt. Liane Hatch\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Those moves buy back time for all the other things soldiers have to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, we\u2019re gonna train more,\u201d Glynn said. \u201cNow that I\u2019m not wasting time every month, that time can be reinvested on training and maintaining mission essential equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soldiers dragged out piles and rows of everything from generators, computer systems, automation equipment, tents, blue force trackers, satellites, drones, nuclear, biological, and chemical protection equipment, night vision goggles, sniper rifles, aged M4 carbines, small terrain utility vehicles, trailers, Humvees, light medium tactical vehicles, route clearance vehicles and unserviceable tanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the changes could be likened to clearing out a cluttered garage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you haven\u2019t done spring cleaning for years in your garage, it\u2019s almost impossible to get anything done,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cIt\u2019s just so jam-packed with stuff you\u2019re unable to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the pilot program did, Campbell said, was give units a chance to clean out their space, organize it and figure out how to use what they had in their facilities to work better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the pilot began, the 82nd Airborne Division was tasked with cutting 2,700 items. They got rid of 16,400.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those items, an estimated 3,000 pieces would have required maintenance to bring them up to the operational standard that units have had to meet before turning items over. Handing off that equipment \u201cas is\u201d saved more than 120,000-man hours of maintenance, Williams said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s less time cleaning old weapons, scanning NBC gear for cracks, counting radio cables and servicing vehicles that nobody drives anymore because they\u2019ve been replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That time saved has a ripple effect, Williams explained. Every item in the inventory has its share of scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. Scheduled items include oil changes for vehicles or function checks for weapons and other gear as they\u2019re used for training or checked periodically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unscheduled maintenance often means that something broke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maintainers only have so much time, so when something breaks down, that takes priority, Williams said. That means that sometimes the scheduled maintenance gets pushed, creating backlogs. Enough broken equipment and those scheduled maintenance backlogs could bring down the readiness of both the equipment and the unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, will begin the next equipment removal, Hinson said. Following that, I Corps, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, then III Corps at Fort Cavazos, Texas are on the schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George said there\u2019s interest across the active Army and Guard. Units in Europe and the Pacific have asked to undergo the gear-shedding process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A soldier turns in excess equipment to the Modernization Displacement and Repair Site at Fort Liberty, N.C., Nov. 2, 2023. (Lindsay Grant\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other efforts to save soldiers\u2019 time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The pilot program is one of multiple efforts that George has highlighted in his first few months as chief, all aimed at moving both the physical and bureaucratic workload up the chain of command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A simultaneous effort that hasn\u2019t gotten as much publicity is the Modified Table of Organization and Equipment Reduction Pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table is the Army-assigned list of equipment and personnel a unit must have on hand, in good working order, to perform their primary mission. That can vary widely depending on the unit, but it is the linchpin for a unit\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team reviewed 10,699 pieces of equipment on the various lists at the 3rd Infantry Division and 82nd Airborne and identified 159 pieces they recommended for removal. That\u2019s in addition to the excess equipment not on the equipment table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some examples included computer and data systems, avionics testing equipment, a grader in the combat engineer company and secure telephones, Ashley Patoka, a Forces Command spokesperson, told Army Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George also noted early on in his tenure that he wanted to drastically reduce the footprint of units\u2019 command posts. He sees a not-too-distant future where a commander uses no more than a tablet from the back of a vehicle to share an operating picture with their staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also told Army Times that he met with senior chief warrant officers from across the force to examine how often mechanics were doing unnecessary vehicle maintenance simply because it was part of the regulation or schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you could save 50 hours inside your formation and spend 25 of that on the range or doing some training, shoot, I don\u2019t care if you use the other 25 to spend time with your family because we\u2019re so busy,\u201d George said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Staff Sgt. Camilla Brock and Cpt. Amanda Smith of the 210th Mobile Affairs Detachment verifies the serial number of a pair Night Vision Goggles as part of an arms inventory on Jan. 13, 2019. (Sgt. Charity Boedeker\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How the Army\u2019s inventory overhaul is going<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the pilot began on Oct. 23, program overseers estimated they\u2019d see 21,464 pieces of equipment leave the inventories of 3rd Infantry Division, 82nd Airborne and about a dozen other smaller units at both Fort Stewart and Fort Liberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the pilot\u2019s end on Dec. 15, the units had turned in more than 37,000 pieces of equipment. More than 16,000 pieces came out of Fort Liberty units and another 11,000 pieces from the Fort Stewart units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An estimated 19,000 pieces were transferred to other units or depots for maintenance. The rest went to the Defense Logistics Agency for other dispositions such as foreign military sales, donations to veterans organizations \u2014 think of the tanks in front of the Veterans of Foreign Wars halls across the country \u2014 or to be sold for scrap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to drill down to the effects on soldiers tasked with tracking all this gear, Glynn, the headquarters company commander with 82nd, shaved 20 pages out of his property book. The captain estimates that simply tracking the excess equipment took at least two workdays a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Soldiers receive and inventory equipment issued to the 41st Field Artillery Brigade at Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 26, 2019. (Matthias Fruth\/Army)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Joshua Conde, property book officer for 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, shrank his property book by 10 pages, cutting 4,200 pieces of equipment out of a 28,000-item property book, or about 15% of what he had to track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have never in my 25 years of active duty, seen this happen before,\u201d said Williams, the 82nd Airborne\u2019s deputy commanding officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked how long cutting so much gear from their lists would have taken under the old system where the burden was on the smaller unit and everything had to be in top maintenance condition, soldiers from the rank of general down to captain estimated between one and three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond time, Glynn pointed to visible differences at his company headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half of his storage space was filled with excess equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He now has a Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear training cage with 600 suits and training aids ready to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a workshop for my (communications) section where they can innovate and train on new communications equipment and my company\u2019s supply cage is now in order and streamlined for distribution,\u201d Glynn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The captain also pointed to an intangible aspect of the lighter load \u2014 credibility. Too many times soldiers were hauling out gear they couldn\u2019t identify and didn\u2019t use, degrading trust that what they were doing mattered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not asking a soldier to dig out something that is 20-25 years obsolete,\u201d Glynn said. \u201cThey\u2019re focusing on equipment that matters and they know that everything they touch is a piece of equipment that they need to be prepared to go to war with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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