Integration of Class IX Retail Supply Initiatives

New logistics concepts are under development in the U.S. Army to provide more affordable and responsive support in both peacetime and wartime. The impetus for these innovations include the lessons learned from Desert Storm, changes in battlefield doctrine, and the cost reduction directives of the 1990 Defense Management Review. In particular, the Class IX repair parts retail supply system is the focus of numerous initiatives to reduce costs and improve responsiveness. These initiatives have not been developed in a totally coordinated manner. Several of the Class IX initiatives have been developed by the Strategic Logistics Agency other initiatives have been developed by various Department of the Army agencies and activities. The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationships between these initiatives, the consistency in their objectives, and how they can be integrated in a coherent repair parts system. The focus in this effort is to evaluate whether these initiatives comprise a repair parts strategy for reducing costs, maintaining readiness, and supporting AirLand Operations as well as the national military strategy of forward presence, crisis response, and reconstitution.