Lifelines: Supporting Logistics in the Indo-Pacific with Technical Interoperability
The pivot to Asia and increased great power competition continue to shift U.S. interests toward the Indo-Pacific—with the U.S. prioritizing the economic and security prosperity of Asian countries as a vital foreign policy interest. Military logistics will be imperative for operational readiness and sustainment in any potential conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Successful logistics in the Indo-Pacific requires speed and resilience as the region is a dispersed archipelago of states plagued by the People Liberation Army’s military aggression. However, the United States lacks the appropriate theater awareness, specifically knowing where force materiel is in real-time across the services, to support effective and rapid logistics operations.
Technical interoperability is a potential solution. Technical interoperability—which encompasses data integration across the services, data presentation, and exchange—helps create greater theater awareness so relevant forces across services, commands, and nations can understand what materiel and personnel are in the theater faster or in real-time. Technical interoperability enhances the efficiency of otherwise geographically and politically challenging logistics by promoting multilateral cooperation and uniting the military’s branches across domains and missions. The United States can improve how it shares and manages data with partners and within its commands. TRANSCOM’s use of the advanced data platform Advana is a case study of the power of technical interoperability. The United States should implement greater common AI analytics and data management standards.
Technical Solutions for Contested Logistics
The United States’ ability to overcome a contested logistics environment will determine operational success in the Indo-Pacific. Logistics in the Indo-Pacific present distinct challenges given that the theater is a uniquely contested environment with significant geographical constraints including thousands of nautical miles separating U.S. bases. Any resupply effort is plagued by the so-called “four tyrannies” of logistics in the Indo-Pacific: distance, time, scale, and the traversal of hundreds of miles of water. The PRC also wages consistent gray zone warfare, through aggressive activities short of conflict including interference with commercial shipping or intercepting the United States’ and partner forces’ vessels, challenging freedom of navigation. All of this occurs against the backdrop of a possible large-scale conflict in the Indo-Pacific. In an all-out war, the PRC’s anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities in the Indo-Pacific would pose a significant challenge to sustainment and mobility—airlift and sealift—for the United States and its allies. In a war, the U.S. forces would have to ship massive amounts of materiel and personnel into the theater while under direct threat from adversarial assets. Addressing this threat requires proactive and adaptable force positioning in the lead-up to and during the outbreak of a conflict. Real-time and accurate theater awareness is central to the United States’ and allies’ ability to conduct operations in the Indo-Pacific.
Shared data systems offer solutions for the United States as it seeks to operate in a contested logistics environment. As advancing adversary capabilities pose mounting threats to supply chain resilience, maneuverability, and resource availability, the United States and its allies must leverage shareable data and interconnected analytics platforms to assess operational needs accurately and in real-time. In application, advanced analytics platforms could “automatically report on the inventory of certain assets, challenges in transporting materials across specific domains, and recent patterns of disruption to the defense supply chain, including internal, environmental, and adversarial threats.” These insights from data are also particularly relevant as states fight for “information superiority” and attempt to gain real-time insights into the location, quantity, and flow of people and resources across the theater.
In large-scale multi-domain environments, this data must be paired with interoperable networks and systems that allow forces to mutually leverage data and streamline joint operations. Data sharing and compatible management platforms will also be critical for the United States to achieve Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and coherently share information with warfighters across domains.
Technical Interoperability Status Quo
The United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy relies on the jointness of U.S. forces and interoperability with and among U.S. allies and partners. These concepts prize strategic and operational force integration and act as a deterrent to Chinese aggression. The ability to coordinate and cooperate with security partners is a critical component of readiness in a hot conflict. The combined power across nations and forces can leverage more resources and sustain deployments in key locations. To realize these advantages, the United States must draw more on friendly nations in the Indo-Pacific and support technical interoperability across the services and commands.
The United States has pursued cooperative agreements with nations in the Indo-Pacific region to support technical interoperability. In July 2024, the Defense Department’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer and Singapore’s deputy secretary for technology signed a data analytics and artificial intelligence cooperation agreement. The United States has also pursued greater digital and AI cooperation in its trilateral dialogue with Australia and Japan. Recent strides in technical interoperability can be demonstrated by the Maritime Big Play exercise held by the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia in Australia’s Jervis Bay. The exercise tested the integration of developmental tech to accelerate intelligence and reconnaissance data transmission at sea. An unnamed senior official celebrated the exercise, stating “Things that would have taken perhaps months were taking place minutes in terms of common operating pictures.” These initiatives support data-sharing in logistics operations and emphasize the variance in integration across different partners.
Services and commands within the United States have similarly seen progress and consistent challenges for technical interoperability. Data is a critical resource, and actors in the Pentagon are trying to transform their organizations to reflect this reality. The Army is leveraging AI, predictive analytics, and data in logistics initiatives. This spring, as a part of its ongoing modernization project, Project Convergence, the Army will test whether it can use live data to show “every time they fire a round or burn a gallon of fuel” to inform logisticians and subsequent re-supply. However, progress has been slow. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth has stated that she remains unsatisfied with how the service uses data.
This dissatisfaction is common across the DoD. A host of institutional and technological challenges have slowed the adoption of advanced data practices and tools. Interoperable data often requires that data be stored in a common format and can be shared across a mutually adopted platform—which is not the status quo for current data management practices. Another difficulty is enabling legacy and new systems to share information in varying data formats across uncommon interfaces.
New integration tools help address technical interoperability challenges by allowing systems with varying data formats and interfaces to exchange information. Initiatives like Project Convergence and Advana reflect progress in modernized joint logistics. Project Convergence evaluates technologies across warfighting functions, and Advana is the Department of Defense’s new data analytics platform designed to support data interoperability. Pentagon leadership has also moved to implement the AI and Data Acceleration Initiative (ADA) to coordinate and integrate data across military systems which began in 2021 and is set to conclude in 2029.
U.S. Transportation Command has been a “key partner” for using Advana and a relative success case for technical interoperability and digital readiness. Advana enables TRANSCOM’s global missions by offering leaders a bird’s eye view of all materiel and personnel involved in operations. Advana played pivotal roles in moving critical materiel to Ukraine and supporting the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Niger. TRANSCOM has also positioned itself to support other combatant commands’ logistics needs. This integrated data analytics capability has become increasingly relevant as Houthi attacks complicate logistics operations in U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility.
TRANSCOM’s successes in data management stem from more than just Advana. Two other factors have contributed to its successful data use: centralizing the command’s data resources and embedding Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) authorities with the command to provide direct access to the office’s assistance. In terms of digital readiness, TRANSCOM leads the commands, and INDOPACOM can learn from its success.
Currently, the combatant commands, including INDOPACOM, have embedded CDAO authorities that promote the implementation of ADA. These officers are helping service members adopt data-driven and digital capabilities, however, the status of this implementation is unclear. INDOPACOM has used Advana to develop a tool to improve the process of tracking critical assets required to deliver scarce capabilities in the area of responsibility. While these initiatives reflect progress, it is unclear how they will impact readiness.
Looking Forward
Current strides in technical interoperability struggle to address integration across nations. Bilateral and multilateral agreements acknowledge the importance of data sharing and general interoperability, but data security concerns limit cross-national data integration. Centralizing mass amounts of sensitive data across nations with varying security standards creates an immense cybersecurity vulnerability. The DoD’s zero trust cybersecurity policy may build too high of a fence to permit complete technical integration between the United States and its allies while maintaining cybersecurity standards. Instead, it would benefit the U.S. to advocate further for common AI analytics and data management standards to create common sharing processes.
Looking inside the Pentagon, technical interoperability between commands and services remains unclear—as much reporting on this topic has not been made public. However, TRANSCOM offers several best practices that could be projected onto other problems. Further initiatives for jointness should look to consolidate data internally, properly manage data for external use, and share data across a mutual platform that holds a host of analytics capabilities. Advana is a step forward for improved logistics, and its upcoming recompete promises to usher in a new wave of improvements especially integrating platform management processes into fast-paced logistics operations. INDOPACOM and other relevant Indo-Pacific forces must also consider centralized data management processes to streamline data-sharing processes.
The logistics contest in the Indo-Pacific demands efficiency and effectiveness, something that can be achieved, in part, through technical interoperability that leverages the power of data and jointness across U.S. forces and with allies and partners.
Views expressed are the author’s own and do not represent the views of GSSR, Georgetown University, or any other entity. Image Credit: U.S. INDOPACOM via Flickr