Afloat Training Group Pacific logistics team steps up to support Operation Iraqi Freedom early deployments.

Deployments preceding Operation Iraqi Freedom to meet requirements for troop/ equipment movement and projecting power ashore significantly compressed the inter-deployment training cycle (IDTC) and basic training phase (BTP) for many ships. Fortunately, the Afloat Training Group Pacific (ATGPAC) Logistics Department was well into implementing a major change to the traditional 16 week BTP assess/ train/certify process, transforming it into an unbounded continuously assess/continuously train/certify process throughout the IDTC that emphasized constant readiness over the single supply management assessment (SMA)/supply management inspection (SMI) event.

This simple, but new approach in supply readiness supports fleet surge capabilities by keeping a "steady strain on the line" throughout the IDTC and directly supports the Navy Supply Corps vision of "One team, one focus: bringing logistics to the fight!"

Analyzing the Traditional Afloat Training Process

In studying logistics readiness data on Pacific Fleet ships, ATGPAC Logistics personnel observed that over a two-year deployment cycle, shipboard supply readiness tended to follow a sine wave shaped curve. After completing a six-month deployment, supply departments are normally running at peak efficiency with knowledge and logistics support at their highest levels. The deployment period represents the high part of the logistics readiness curve.

When a ship enters the post-deployment IDTC, a downturn in supply readiness and knowledge tends to follow, primarily due to personnel rotation (see Figure (1), Old Training Philosophy). Thus begins the down slope in the logistics readiness curve. As a ship transitions through the maintenance availability period, supply operations tend to lose their readiness edge--the bottom of the logistics readiness curve.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

After the maintenance availability, the ship enters the basic training phase (BTP), with certification for the next deployment as the goal. To certify a ship's supply readiness, ATGPAC provided training and conducted an SMA and SMI, where the SMA is an assessment and the SMI is the official certification. During this time, supply operations usually underwent a steep ramp-up phase, which extracts a tremendous amount of effort from the crew to climb back to the top of the readiness sine curve.