"Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics." This quote is attributed to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Robert H. Barrow in 1980. The observation is especially relevant to the USSOCOM enterprise due to the command's dual role as a combatant command and an organization with legislated military department-like authorities. One of the chief tasks under those military department-like authorities is the procurement and fielding of SOF-peculiar equipment. Certainly within the past 15 years, many in the special operations community will argue that technology that is acquired and fast-fielded can save lives. Therefore, Dr. Tkach's monograph is an important read for SOF professionals. Dr. Tkach wrote this monograph for all professionals who study logistics and enable Special Operations Forces (SOF). As you review the work, consider how you can ensure SOF continues to receive the effective support it needs to carry out its mission.

Special Operations Contracting:21st Century Approaches for Service and TechnologyAcquisition

The mission of the United States Army is to fight and win our nation's wars by providing prompt, sustained land dominance across the full range of military operations and spectrum of conflict in support of combatant commanders. Accomplishing this mission rests on the ability of the Army to equip and move its forces to the battle and sustain them while they are engaged. Logistics provides the backbone for Army combat operations. Without fuel, ammunition, rations, and other supplies, the Army would grind to a halt. The U.S. military must be prepared to fight anywhere on the globe and, in an era of coalition warfare, to logistically support its allies. While aircraft can move large amounts of supplies, the vast majority must be carried on ocean going vessels and unloaded at ports that may be at a great distance from the battlefield. As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have shown, the costs of convoying vast quantities of supplies is tallied not only in economic terms but also in terms of lives lost in the movement of the materiel. As the ability of potential enemies to interdict movement to the battlefield and interdict movements in the battlespace increases, the challenge of logistics grows even larger. No matter how the nature of battle develops, logistics will remain a key factor. Force Multiplying Technologies for Logistics Support to Military Operations explores Army logistics in a global, complex environment that includes the increasing use of antiaccess and area-denial tactics and technologies by potential adversaries. This report describes new technologies and systems that would reduce the demand for logistics and meet the demand at the point of need, make maintenance more efficient, improve inter- and intratheater mobility, and improve near-real-time, in-transit visibility. Force Multiplying Technologies also explores options for the Army to operate with the other services and improve its support of Special Operations Forces. This report provides a logistics-centric research and development investment strategy and illustrative examples of how improved logistics could look in the future.

This report focuses on the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Global Battlestaff and Program Support (GBPS) contract. It determined whether USSOCOM properly administered task orders awarded under the GBPS contract, valued at approx. $231 million, as of Nov. 16, 2011. USSOCOM contracting officers did not properly administer GBPS task orders in accordance with Federal guidance. This occurred because contracting officers did not ensure task order terms complied with Federal Acquisition Regulation requirements to include clear, specific, and objective terms with measurable outcomes or review task orders for inherently governmental functions and elements of a personal services contract. USSOCOM personnel preferred unclear task order requirements to maintain flexibility and to support emerging tasks. In addition, contracting officers did not adequately support determinations of fair and reasonable pricing for 20 modifications, totaling approx. $38.8 million, as required by Federal guidance. Tables. This is a print on demand report.

Over the past decade, America's military and federal-civilian employees, as well as contractors, have performed vital and dangerous tasks in Iraq and Afghanistan. Contractors' support however, has been unnecessarily costly, and has been plagued by high levels of waste and fraud. The United States will not be able to conduct large or sustained contingency operations without heavy contractor support. Avoiding a repetition of the waste, fraud, and abuse seen in Iraq and Afghanistan requires either a great increase in agencies' ability to perform core tasks and to manage contracts effectively, or a disciplined reconsideration of plans and commitments that would require intense use of contractors. Failure by Congress and the Executive Branch to heed a decade's lessons on contingency contracting from Iraq and Afghanistan will not avert new contingencies. It will only ensure that additional billions of dollars of waste will occur and that U.S. objectives and standing in the world will suffer. Worse still, lives will be lost because of waste and mismanagement.

Simon Chase's life is a maze of burner phones, encrypted emails, secret meetings, and weaponry - all devoted to executing missions too sensitive for government acknowledgement. Working for shadowy British and American organisations, Chase has been on the trail of Bin Laden in Afghanistan, protected allied generals in Iraq, and been part of an operation directly related to the attack in 2012 on the US consulate in Benghazi. Zero Footprint takes us to this dangerous and thrilling world, and tells the true story of a private military contractor whose work forms the foundation for western security abroad, especially when the UK and US military, intelligence agencies, and departments of state need something done that they can't - or won't - do themselves.

This research assesses the contract management process capability of the United States Special Operations Command's (USSOCOM) Special Operations Acquisition and Logistics Directorate of Procurement (SOAL-K). The assessment uses two cross-sectional surveys covering contract management processes and mentorship/informationsharing. The purpose of this research is to analyze SOAL-K's contract management processes, provide a current assessment of the contract management process maturity level for each procurement division within SOAL-K, and recommend areas for improvement through application of the Contract Management Maturity Model (CMMM) to SOAL-K's senior leadership. A mentoring/information-sharing survey is administered to examine the current mentoring/information-sharing practices of SOAL-K.