LOGLINES

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY MAY – JUNE 2016
Lt. Gen. Andy Busch, USAF

Director, Defense Logistics Agency

DLA Director

Air Force Lt. Gen. Andy Busch

DLA Vice Director

Ted Case 

Chief of Staff

Renee L. Roman

Director, Public Affairs

Joseph M. Yoswa

Deputy Director, Public Affairs

Patrick H. Mackin

Loglines is the authorized publication for 

the Defense Logistics Agency’s workforce of 

federal civilians, active-duty military and Joint 

Reserve Force augmentees at agency activities 

worldwide and industry customers of DLA. 

Contents of this publication are not necessarily 

the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. 

government, the Department of Defense or the 

Defense Logistics Agency. 

LOGLINES

Official Flagship Publication

of the Defense Logistics Agency

LOGLINES STAFF

Managing Editor: Phil Prater

Senior Editor: John R. Bell

Writers: Beth Reece

Chris Erbe

Layout/Design: Paul Henry Crank

Headquar ters, Defense Logistics Agency, Office of Public Affairs 

8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 2545, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6221

Phone: 703-767-6200 E-mail: loglines@dla.mil

Loglines is prepared electronically, using desktop publishing applications; no commercial typesetting 

costs are involved. Photos not credited are courtesy of agency sources. Submissions and correspondence 

may be sent to the address below:

One thing that makes me proud 

to be part of DLA is our ability 

to anticipate customer needs 

and innovate to meet our warfighter 

requirements no matter how often 

they change. Through the Research 

and Development Program, DLA 

continuously innovates to keep our 

systems at the forefront of technology.

Our R&D team identifies and 

prioritizes innovative programs 

based on customer requirements. 

Research and investment in emerging 

technologies means we have a greater 

capability to meet the warfighter’s 

needs. Our early exploration and 

investment in these technologies 

will provide our customers the 

opportunity to capitalize on our work 

and potentially save time and money. 

One example is the additive 

manufacturing process. Like 3D 

printing, it uses layers of material 

to create functional parts and 

products instead of the more wasteful 

subtractive process, in which 

machines shape material. This is a 

critical development in making items 

that are hard to source and providing 

parts that require long lead times.

In this issue, you’ll find the latest 

on how DLA R&D is working to 

recoup taxpayer money by exploring 

new ways to dispose of demilitarized 

vehicles. You can see how a DLA 

product testing center makes sure the 

materials used in military uniforms 

conform to specifications. You can 

also read about several ongoing R&D 

projects, involving everything from 

batteries, to casting and forging, to 

how we feed our personnel. 

Some projects are still in early 

stages but hold great promise for 

logistics operations and allow us to 

understand the potential of disruptive 

technologies. These innovations 

will remove the barriers to using 

commercial technology, reduce 

response times and ensure investments 

directly benefit the warfighter and our 

other customers.

Our ever-present goal at DLA 

is to efficiently turn logistics R&D 

investments into operational 

solutions. Through our collaborations 

with industry, we can eliminate 

unproductive processes and encourage 

evolving ones that boost capabilities, 

cut costs and deliver logistics 

excellence now and in the future. 

DIRECTOR

FROM THE
Loglines l May - June 2016 1

A Conversation with ... 22

Navy Rear Adm. Vincent L. Griffith

History Highlights 27

Good Eats:

Military Food Research and Development

DLA NewsWire 30

I am DLA Back Cover

Wallan Hashimoto

DEPARTMENTS

2

8

16

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

20

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

32

DLA ON www.dla.mil www.facebook.com/dla.mil www.twitter.com/dlamil www.youtube.com/dodlogisticsagency

THE WEB

DLA Research and Development 2

DLA’s current R&D program focuses on end-to-end supply chain 

for traditional programs, but also looks at strategic priorities. 

Power to the Warfighters 5

DLA’s research into new battery technologies aims to cut costs, 

enhance manufacturing and advance technology for DLA’s 

battery supply chain.

On Spec 8

A new initiative consolidates data to help DLA better define 

technical standards for clothing and other textile items. 

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto 10

A variety of new technologies may someday help DLA employees 

work with less fatigue, greater efficiency and improved safety.

Rations: Better Seal, Longer Shelf Life 14

By improving the seals on food packaging, two DLA projects 

aim to prevent spoilage of battlefield meals, as well as increase 

variety and improve taste.

New Technology, Ancient Industry 16

Casting and forging are among the oldest manufacturing 

methods but are still used to make some very high-tech parts 

needed by the military.

Parts on Demand 20

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, will 

someday enable DLA to make hard-to-obtain parts quickly and 

economically, starting with seven aircraft parts. 

DLA’s Process Problem Solvers 25

DLA’s Weapon System Sustainment R&D Program helps make 

sure customers have the parts they need, addressing process 

problems as they occur.

Coming Soon to a Trail Near You ... Maybe 32

DLA is looking at several options for disposing of excess military 

vehicles to recoup taxpayer dollars while protecting the public.

CONTENTS

MAY - JUNE 2016
2 www.dla.mil

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

magine people being transported 

across country by land in just 

minutes, at speeds over 700 miles 

per hour. Now think of how this 

game-changing innovation might 

be applied to logistics. 

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop is an “elevated 

tube that runs for hundreds of miles 

between cities, propelling passengers at 

near supersonic speeds,” wrote Shervin 

Pishevar, co-founder and chairman of 

Hyperloop Technologies, in “Hyperloop 

Is Real: Meet The Startups Selling 

Supersonic Travel” (Forbes, Feb 15, 2015). 

It is creative, innovative and definitely a 

I

New technologies such as this automated forklift 

could soon be available to DLA employees.

game-changer — a futuristic idea residing 

in basic research. 

Research and development at the 

Defense Logistics Agency is applied 

research, enabling supply-chain innovation 

that directly supports the warfighter. 

It is a strategic activity that lives in an 

operational environment. Each day, 

program managers in the DLA Logistics 

Operations’ R&D Division seek to harness 

new manufacturing or logistics processes 

and leverage emerging technologies that 

will empower the warfighter to be more 

efficient and effective.

They work with DLA stakeholders 

Story by Kelly Morris, Chief, DLA Research and Development

DLA RESEARCH

AND DEVELOPMENT

and industry to understand gaps 

in technologies, problem areas and 

disruptive technologies, and then employ 

sound, economic solutions to integrate 

into the end-to-end supply chain. R&D’s 

manufacturing technology — ManTech 

— and logistics technology — LogTech 

— programs are well suited for the job. 

R&D has employed a sound approach 

over the past few years and become even 

more strategically focused, identifying 

and assessing disruptive technologies 

appropriate for a logistics operational 

environment, and aligning investments to 

DLA priorities that support the warfighter. 

R&D in the End-to-End Supply Chain

DLA R&D efforts are aligned by 

budget activities and program elements 

that support the development of a 

responsive, world-class manufacturing 

capability to meet warfighter needs 

throughout a defense system’s lifecycle. 

R&D efforts also pioneer advanced 

logistics concepts and business processes 

that provide the leanest logistics footprint, 

adopt best commercial practices, and 

develop technical solutions with risks that 

are acceptable in light of their potential 

rewards — including lower costs. 

R&D spurs innovation in the 

operational end-to-end supply chain. 

From the supplier’s supplier to the 

customer’s customer, R&D programs at 

DLA support the warfighter by developing 

new technologies and processes to 

improve efficiency and effectiveness. 

Supply chain processes are reflected in 

A STRATEGIC ACTIVITY THAT LIVES IN AN OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT Courtesy Photo
Loglines l May - June 2016 3

The DLA supply chain comprises many different 

types of items. the Supply Chain Operation’s Reference 

Model, which is the world’s leading 

supply chain framework, linking business 

processes, performance metrics, practices 

and people skills into a unified structure. 

The model keys in on five main process 

areas: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and 

Return. DLA R&D makes a difference in 

every aspect.

Planning is a key process, and R&D 

program managers work with DLA 

stakeholders to identify key challenges 

and problems where R&D solutions 

may be viable. Sourcing is next, and 

R&D has projects in strategic materials, 

anti-counterfeiting, and microcircuit 

emulation. These programs support 

manufacturing processes and technologies 

that help ensure spare parts for hundreds 

of weapon systems will be secure and 

available when needed. The Energy 

Readiness Program looks to improve fuel 

quality and supports innovations that 

develop alternative fuels. 

Although DLA is not a manufacturer, 

R&D programs support critical 

manufacturing industries, such as casting 

and forging, to improve quality, lower 

costs and reduce production lead times for 

spare parts. The additive manufacturing 

program in R&D provides potential 

solutions for urgent requirements for 

hard-to-source parts that are obsolete, 

back-ordered, have long lead times, or are 

otherwise difficult to obtain. 

R&D also has a robust batteries 

program that innovates to reduce 

lifecycle costs and logistics requirements 

by reducing the size and weight of 

personal and vehicle batteries and 

extending run time. This program is 

also working on new battery designs to 

reduce environmental hazards. At the 

ground floor of many manufacturing 

innovations are the Small Business 

Innovation Research and Small Business 

Technology Transfer Programs, which 

spark manufacturing capabilities that lead 

to prototypes in DLA ManTech programs. 

Delivering capabilities to DLA’s 

customers is critically important. R&D 

efforts in this area include innovations 

in subsistence, clothing and textiles, 

and medical logistics, as well as 

distribution operations. Weapons systems 

sustainment supports innovations within 

DLA process areas, such as planning, 

tech/quality and procurement, reducing 

costs, developing new processes and 

technologies and increasing DLA’s 

efficiency and effectiveness. 

Information supports every aspect of 

the supply chain. DLA needs to ensure 

accurate, real-time and integrated information. The Defense Logistics Information 

Research program promotes innovations to 

connect data across the supply chain from 

connecting the quality of specifications, to 

developing digital frameworks.

Strategic Alignment

Although R&D is ever-present in an 

operational supply chain environment, 

over the last few years, DLA R&D has 

taken a strategic perspective, focusing 

on game-changing, high-impact results. 

Investments must be strategic and support 

the DLA Strategic Plan. The division has 

developed strategic focus areas, aligned to 

the budget activities and program elements 

that support industrial preparedness. 

Objectives are to improving industrial base 

manufacturing processes, maintain viable 

supply sources, improve technical and 

logistics information and take advantage of 

emergent manufacturing technologies. For 

logistics R&D demonstrations, objectives 

are to enhance analysis, modeling and 

decision support; improve logistics 

processes; and capture emergent logistics 

R&D requirements. 

Developing the Strategic Focus areas 

was the first step in becoming more 

strategically aligned to respond to the 

PLAN

SUPPLIER’S 

SUPPLIER

STRATEGIC MATERIALS MICROCIRCUIT EMULATION CASTINGS FORGINGS BATTERIES

COUNTERFEIT PARTS ENERGY

DISTRIBUTION / DISPOSITION

COMBAT RATIONS UNIFORMS

CUSTOMER’S 

CUSTOMER

SUPPLIER CUSTOMER

MAKE

MAKE MAKE

DELIVER

DELIVER DELIVER

DELIVER

SOURCE

SOURCE SOURCE

SOURCE

RETURN

RETURN RETURN

RETURN

RETURN

RETURN RETURN

RETURN

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INTEGRATION INTO THE DLA END-TO-END SUPPLY CHAIN
4 www.dla.mil

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

warfighter needs of today and tomorrow. 

In 2015, DLA R&D started to conduct 

annual assessments and environmental 

scans of disruptive technologies and gamechangers that might drive an improved 

logistics solution for the enterprise. 

The team looked at new innovations on 

the horizon in the R&D program areas, 

then linked disruptive technologies to 

the McKinsey Global Institute’s report 

on “Disruptive Technologies: Advances 

that will Transform Life, Business and 

the Global Economy.” DLA senior leaders 

prioritized the most important 

technologies for DLA and focused 

on linking R&D investments to 

strategic outcomes in the DLA 

Strategic Plan. 

In May 2015, the DLA 

Strategic Plan made Warfighter 

First its No. 1 goal, with an 

objective of “Leveraging DLA’s 

Research and Development 

program to infuse innovation 

into our solutions.” The strategic 

intent was now in place for 

R&D to work on technologies 

and automation in distribution 

operations, and 3D printing of 

hard-to-source and long-leadtime parts to “enhance logistics 

support capabilities and produce 

more reliable, cost-effective 

solutions.” The strategic assessments 

were a starting point, and now this 

approach has been integrated into the 

strategic culture of R&D to enable DLA 

senior leaders to identify and prioritize 

game-changing innovations linked to 

investments to make a difference in 

warfighter outcomes.

The second critical step was to 

listen to DLA’s partners in industry 

and the military services to understand 

challenges and issues that might require 

R&D solutions. Senior leader forums 

like Navy/DLA Day and U.S. Special 

Operations Command/DLA Day provided 

opportunities to discuss potential R&D 

efforts that truly support the warfighter. 

R&D leaders and program managers 

also have an open, running dialog with 

industry to view potential innovative 

solutions that support the supply chains. 

Industry and the military services 

are also trying to crack the code 

on innovations such as additive 

manufacturing. Navy Rear Adm. Vincent 

Griffith, director of DLA Logistics 

Operations said, “We’re partnering with 

the military services and industry to use 

additive manufacturing to obtain obsolete 

and hard-to-source parts for the more 

than 2,400 weapons systems we support.” 

R&D Going Forward

R&D will continue to work on the 

legacy ManTech and LogTech programs 

that support the supply chain. Additive 

manufacturing will continue to be a 

strategic priority, and DLA R&D has been 

moving the needle forward in both areas. 

Mike Scott, DLA Logistics Operations’ 

deputy director, said automation will help 

DLA improve its support.

“With the state-of-the-art technology 

and capabilities available in the 

marketplace, now is the time we need to 

look hard at getting DLA’s infrastructure 

improved to world class,” he said.

DLA Distribution could reap rewards 

from R&D insights at its warehouses.

“Ensuring the right technology is 

in our warehouses has the potential to 

increase DLA Distribution’s effectiveness 

and deliver efficiencies at the same time,” 

said Twila Gonzales, DLA Distribution’s 

deputy commander. “It’s a huge priority 

for us to focus on.”

Another top priority is to fund R&D 

efforts in anti-counterfeiting. Griffith 

explained, “We have undertaken some 

impressive efforts already to establish 

an in-house DNA marking capability 

for all microcircuits at our Electronics 

Product Test Center in Ohio, but we are 

also pursuing additional R&D efforts for 

marking capabilities of highrisk items.” 

Another priority is to 

ensure a secure supply 

chain. This includes anticounterfeiting technologies as 

well as processes to support 

new technologies. R&D efforts 

will help to better understand 

vulnerabilities and risks in the 

supply chain. Then, they can 

build solutions that support 

procurement, quality and 

cyber risks.

Most of the R&D budget 

supports traditional programs. 

However, strategic priorities 

also require an investment. For 

some of the priorities, R&D 

can use its existing budget. For 

other investments, like additive manufacturing, the team works with DLA Finance 

to align strategic priorities with funding. 

The R&D shop in DLA Logistics 

Operations straddles both sides of 

the operational and strategic world. 

Its ManTech and LogTech programs 

are robust and well-suited to support 

the warfighter by developing new 

processes and technologies that support 

the operational end-to-end supply 

chain. R&D has become even more 

strategically focused, identifying and 

assessing disruptive technologies that 

are appropriate for a logistics operational 

environment, and then engaging senior 

leaders to identify priorities and align 

investments that support solutions to put 

the “Warfighter First.” 

3D modeling artist Ryan Gilley displays some of the products he designed 

and printed using advanced manufacturing techniques at the Edgewood 

Chemical Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

Tom Faulkner, RDECOM Public Affairs
Loglines l May - June 2016 5

Story by Chris Erbe

ust as civilians have learned 

to rely on batteries to power 

multiple devices, so too has the 

warfighter — and then some. Over 

the last 15 years, the military has 

added more and more energy-consuming 

gear to the soldier’s load, including 

radios, GPS, computers, smartphones, 

night-vision goggles, infrared sights and 

counter-IED equipment. 

The ability of these devices to improve 

mission effectiveness and survivability 

is significant, but the downside is that 

the warfighter has to carry added weight, 

especially from batteries. In response, 

DoD research and development has 

focused on ways to provide more power 

while reducing the load. DoD researchers 

are engineering batteries that are lighter, 

smaller, longer-lasting and more powerful.

While it is the researcher’s job to 

provide a solution to a problem, it is the 

manufacturer’s job to produce enough 

of the resulting product to support 

DoD’s mission. It is at this point that 

the Defense Logistics Agency Battery 

R&D Network Program steps in to 

encourage technology implementation 

projects, striving to lower costs, enhance 

manufacturing and advance technology 

for DLA’s battery supply chain.

“We work closely with outside 

industries,” said Matt Hutchens, 

industrial engineer at DLA Logistics 

Operations and head of DLA’s BATTNET 

program. “For a good portion of our 

J R&D, we collaborate with suppliers, and 

they propose a specific manufacturing 

plan that will achieve the objectives we’re 

looking for.”

The BATTNET Program recently 

supported a project to ramp up 

manufacture of an improved lithium 

carbon monofluoride battery that powers 

radios and other small electronics used by 

soldiers in the field.

Two civilian technology companies, 

Ultralife Inc. and EaglePicher 

Technologies, partnering with the U.S. 

Army Communications-Electronics 

Research, Development and Engineering 

Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground 

in Maryland, developed a smaller, 

lighter military battery that offered a 

lot of advantages. The improved battery 

delivered a 110-percent increase in energy 

capacity; a 31- to 50-percent decrease in 

Air Force Staff Sgt. Jeremy Easterwood, with 

the 455th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness 

Squadron, places a battery in a Mine Resistant 

Ambush Protected vehicle at Bagram Air Field, 

Afghanistan.

POWER TO THE

WARFIGHTERS

weight (depending on battery size); and 

an increased shelf life from 5 to 15 years. 

Once the research team validated the 

chemistry and tested the samples, the 

focus shifted to manufacturing.

“Our task was to find a way to 

move from producing a few prototypes 

to producing hundreds of units in a 

fully functioning manufacturing line,” 

Hutchens said.

DLA encouraged the two technology 

companies to scale up production by 

assisting with funding for the cost of 

engineering, materials and testing.

The Army recently finished successful 

testing of several hundred batteries in 

various sizes at the Aberdeen Proving 

Ground and is ordering larger quantities 

for troops in the field.

“This project made a quick, positive 

impact by providing a battery with higher 

Air Force Staff Sgt. Jeff Nevison
6 www.dla.mil

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

energy capabilities for the warfighter,” 

Hutchens said. “BATTNET’s role was to 

develop manufacturing capability, and 

now it has transitioned to bringing the 

resulting product into the logistics chain.”

For establishing production of the 

lithium carbon monofluoride battery 

and making it available to the military, 

project developed a new procedure in the 

manufacture of battery electrodes.

Most electrode manufacturers use 

a wet process that involves taking a 

roll of aluminum through a slurry coat 

of hazardous materials and solvents 

before sending it through a dryer. The 

air used for drying is so toxic that it has 

to be captured and removed safely from 

circulation. The process is expensive, 

and the capital investment needed to set 

up and maintain such an operation is a 

barrier to many small businesses.

Through a DLA broad agency 

announcement, Hutchens became 

aware of Eskra Technical Products, a 

small company that developed a dry, 

electrostatic process to coat electrodes. 

The dry method eliminated the need 

for hazardous solvents and a lot of the 

equipment costs associated with the 

wet-coating process. Using the dry coating 

method, new capitalization costs can 

drop by 50 percent and production costs 

decrease by 30 percent.

“The process was much more flexible 

in that you could switch out materials 

without having to totally clean the 

equipment like you would with a wet 

process,” Hutchens added. “It even 

provided quality improvements — the 

coating is very uniform.”

With DLA’s encouragement and 

technical assistance, Eskra Technical 

Products has been working with B&W 

Megtec, a maker of battery manufacturing 

equipment, to design low-cost dry-coating 

production machines. Hutchens expects 

the dry-coating process to open the 

door for smaller-scale manufacturers to 

produce electrodes effectively at much 

lower cost.

“This project attempts to go deep 

into the production process to make an 

innovative cost reduction that, long term, 

we hope will have an impact on battery 

costs,” said Hutchens. “As this capability 

gets integrated into the battery suppliers, 

we expect the competitive market to 

influence prices.”

In another initiative, the DLA 

BATTNET Program teamed with the U.S. 

Hutchens and the other DoD R&D team 

members and partners were awarded 

the Defense Manufacturing Technology 

Achievement Award in 2014.

DLA’s BATTNET program also looks 

for ways to promote better manufacturing 

processes to the battery industry in order 

to drive down overall costs. One recent 

DLA Research and Development’s Other Battery Initiatives

But wait ... there’s more! 

DLA R&D’s Small Business 

Innovation Research program funds 

phase-one projects from small companies 

— those with contracts of $100,000 or less. 

In 2014 and 2015, SBIR posted an “Advanced 

Battery Manufacturing 

Technology” topic in its annual 

solicitation. In response, DLA 

awarded nine contracts to eight 

small businesses working on 

advances that aim to reduce 

costs and lead times, eliminate 

hazardous production solvents 

or improve the performance of 

military batteries. 

Physical Sciences Inc., of 

Andover, Massachusetts, is combining two innovations that result in higher power but safer 

lithium-ion batteries, and working 

on an environmental friendly way 

to manufacture battery cathodes 

by using less harmful solvents. 

CAMX Power, LLC, of 

Lexington, Massachusetts, 

is working on two projects: 

batteries that can be made 

inactive for safer transport 

and storage and automated 

test software to detect manufacturing 

defects in a battery cell during the final 

manufacturing step.

Xerion Advanced Battery Corp., of 

Westminster, Colorado, is developing a rechargeable battery using a new manufacturing 

method called electroplating. This new process 

will produce safer batteries at a lower cost. 

ADA Technologies, of Littleton, Colorado, 

is developing a laser system to cut battery 

electrodes which will reduce manufacturing 

defects caused by die cutters. 

K2 Energy Solutions, of Henderson, 

Nevada, is working on making 

rechargeable batteries using a “greener” 

manufacturing process by eliminating 

environmentally harmful solvents. 

American Energy Technologies, of 

Arlington Heights, Illinois, is working 

on an alternative process to make 

CFx material used in some nonrechargeable batteries that will increase 

the industrial base and reduce cost.

Big Delta Systems, of Houston, 

Texas, is developing production 

capabilities in an additive deposition 

process for lithium-ion electrodes, 

which will result in lower cost, 

lightweight rechargeable batteries 

carried by the warfighter, 

OnTo Technology, of Bend, Oregon, 

is making new rechargeable batteries 

from recycled battery materials. Using 

recycled material has the potential to 

save DoD money and is good for the 

environment.

“As you can see from the above 

projects, big ideas come from small 

businesses,” said Traci Myers, SBIR project 

manager and engineer at DLA Land & 

Maritime. “The exciting thing about the SBIR 

program is energizing small businesses to 

bring ideas to the table that solve a problem.”

— Chris Erbe

The BATTNET Program recently supported a project to ramp 

up manufacture of an improved lithium battery that powers 

radios and other small electronics used by soldiers in the field.
Loglines l May - June 2016 7

Army Aviation and Missile Command 

in September 2015 to design and 

manufacture a replacement battery 

used for the missile guidance system of 

the TOW2 anti-tank missile. AMCOM’s 

goal was to replace a two-piece nickelcadmium battery and charger system with 

a lithium-ion battery that has its own 

integrated charging capability. 

Besides having a detached charging 

system, the NiCad battery’s problems 

include poor performance, high maintenance costs and a disappearing supply 

chain. The charging unit was so obsolete it 

was no longer being manufactured. 

AMCOM is now designing, 

developing, and testing a replacement 

lithium-ion battery, and DLA BATTNET 

will be providing a technical data package 

to transition the battery to manufacturing. 

“The new battery will reduce the 

system weight, get more firings, reduce 

logistics and life cycle costs — and we’ll 

be resolving the supply chain problem,” 

Hutchens said.

DLA is also partnering with the Naval 

Air Systems Command to increase the 

manufacturing readiness of a lithium-ion 

battery used in the MH-60 helicopter. 

Like the battery for the TOW missile 

guidance system, the NiCad battery 

currently being used for the aircraft 

suffers from performance issues and 

growing maintenance costs. 

NAVAIR has tested prototypes 

of a replacement lithium-ion battery 

with a company called Quallion. In 

December 2015, the DLA BATTNET 

Program stepped in to develop a 

manufacturing plan.

“In about a year, NAVAIR wants 

to buy about 100 batteries and run 

them through a complete flight-test 

qualification,” Hutchens said. “The 

current design needs to be reduced 

in complexity and there needs to 

be some risk reduction testing as it 

relates to the manufacturing. Our 

goal is to have the best battery at the 

lowest cost come out of our contract.”

What’s the next battery 

innovation? Lithium-ion technology 

has come a long way, but there is 

still a lot of room for improvement, 

Hutchens said. Emerging technology 

in the lithium family of batteries has 

to do with testing different types 

of anodes, as well as improving 

cathode materials and electrolytes. 

Companies like Panasonic are 

experimenting with batteries with 

silicon-based anodes, and there are 

more exotic solutions on the horizon, 

such as battery power built into 

warfighters’ clothing.

But what good are innovations 

if there is no reasonable access? 

As DoD and industry researchers 

push the envelope to keep up with 

warfighters’ demand to make 

batteries lighter, longer lasting and 

with higher energy, DLA’s BATTNET 

Program works with producers to 

bridge the gap from development to 

full-scale production. 

As long as there is a need, DoD 

will continue to find innovative 

ways to improve battery technology 

through its many R&D programs, 

activities and partnerships. At the 

same time, the DLA’s BATTNET 

Program will be finding innovative 

ways to bring those advantages to its 

most important customer. 

Air Force Senior Airman Anthony Woodruff, 380th 

Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, removes 

a battery cell from a U-2 battery. This process is used 

to saturate the pads inside the cell. 

Army Sgt. Daniel Hoffman, a fire support 

noncommissioned officer with Delta Company, 

1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Inf. 

Brigade Combat Team, 4th Inf. Division, looks 

through a battery-powered long-distance 

laser rangefinder to get measurements for an 

upcoming artillery shoot south of Kandahar 

Airfield, Afghanistan. 

— Photo by Army Staff Sgt. Whitney Houston 

Air Force Master Sgt. Chance Babin
8 www.dla.mil

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

unter, olive, mint: The shades 

of green are many, but the 

Army has strict standards 

for which ones make up the 

service’s camouflage pattern. 

Before a soldier dons a new combat 

uniform, its fabric has been checked to 

verify that it conforms to the military’s 

strict color standards.

 Service members’ uniforms, 

protective gear and even footwear 

undergo rigorous testing for everything 

from colorfastness to wear resistance 

and safety at the Defense Logistics 

Agency Analytical Product Testing Center 

in Philadelphia. A new research and 

development initiative headed by DLA 

Logistics Operations’ Julie Tsao aims to 

consolidate technical data that outlines 

performance requirements and testing 

for clothing and textile items in a digital 

H

Ardra Farally (left) and Jamie Hieber analyze 

a fabric sample against Coast Guard uniform 

standards and tolerances. Color science 

testing is conducted on every piece of fabric 

the military buys through DLA Troop Support’s 

clothing and textiles supply chain.

— Photo by Mikia Muhammad

Ardra Farally, a chemist and shade evaluator at the DLA Product Test Center in Philadelphia, discusses the shade evaluation process for military 

uniforms to Army Sgt. Maj. Rodger Mansker of the Army’s operations and logistics readiness directorate.

environment assessable to the services, 

DLA and industry.

“The military continually redesigns 

uniforms and individual equipment, and 

that’s a challenge for industry because 

technical data is difficult to acquire,” Tsao 

said. “It’s DLA’s responsibility to pass 

item specifications to the industrial base, 

but they’re stored in PDF documents, a 

format that usually isn’t compatible with 

commercial databases.”

Military specifications are also 

lengthy, accounting for such characteristics as durability and fabric content. 

It takes thousands of pages to outline 

Story by Beth Reece

ON SPEC

Bill Addison

specifications associated with the fabric, 

content, wear and color for the Army’s 

combat uniform trousers, for example. 

But lack of access to these specs increases 

the risk that vendors’ fabric and patterns 

will be rejected. “By the time testers reject 

a lot of fabric, the printer already has millions of dollars on the line,” Tsao said.

Getting uniforms through production 

into the hands of service members is 

further complicated by conflicting use 

of shade-evaluation methods, which 
Loglines l May - June 2016 9

DLA Troop Support commander Army Brig. 

Gen. Charles Hamilton hands a pair of combat 

boots to an Air Force recruit receiving her initial 

clothing issue at Lackland Air Force Base. 

Hamilton saw technology implemented by the 

clothing and textiles supply chain that helped 

cut the clothing issue time in half.

Michael Tuttle

can be done via the human eye or with 

a color-measuring device. Industry and 

DoD agree the latter are not adequate for 

multi-colored fabric, such as camouflage, 

but industry has become more reliant 

on devices to evaluate shades for solidcolored fabrics.

Color scientists at DoD test labs prefer 

visual testing. They’re among a small group 

of individuals who can see up to 10 million 

colors, and their ability to evaluate fabric 

shading is tested every six months with 

a specialized color-acuity test. Industry, 

however, relies more on instrumental 

readings to assess color shades.

“When the test lab gives a rejection, 

the reason can be as simple as too 

green or too red. So even when fabric is 

rejected, there’s no instrumental reading 

provided to the printer so they can make 

adjustments accordingly,” Tsao said.

Tsao’s program sponsored a study 

in collaboration with the Textile 

Materials Evaluation Teamat the Natick 

Soldier Research, Development and 

Engineering Center, Massachusetts, the 

DLA Product Test Center, and industry 

which found a correlation between 

instrumental readings and human shade 

testing for a number of solid-shade 

military fabrics. The challenge, Tsao 

said, is that users must know how to 

properly calibrate the instrument and 

there must be a disciplined reading 

process that’s standard among the 

services, manufacturers and fabric 

testers. As a result, DLA has begun to 

provide instrumental readings on the 

color standard for use by industry in its 

instrumental shade evaluations. 

DLA’s product testers are gradually 

providing instrumental readings to 

industry, and current R&D efforts will 

help automate the test reporting process. 

Partnering with industry on these 

and similar projects is critical because 

the clothing and textile manufacturing 

base is fragile, Tsao added. The Berry 

Amendment requires the Defense 

Department to buy only U.S.-made 

products, but it’s become increasingly 

difficult to find raw components, such 

as thread and buttons, that aren’t from 

foreign sources. It’s also a small industry 

of primarily small businesses whose only 

customer is the U.S. military. 

Tsao’s work has already shown that 

emerging technology can lead to major 

improvements despite the challenges 

inherent to clothing and textiles. In early 

2010, she led a project to incorporate 

the use of radio-frequency identification 

technology during the clothing-issue 

process at recruit training centers. 

Collecting initial clothing items was then 

a three-hour process during which troops 

collected gear, visually inspected it and 

recorded the quantities and sizes they 

received with pen and paper. 

Attaching RFID tags to the items 

and having troops walk through an 

RFID reader reduced the process to 

about 45 minutes. The information is 

automatically transmitted to DLA Troop 

DLA has begun to provide instrumental readings on the 

color standard for use by industry in its instrumental 

shade evaluations.

Support, where clothing and textile 

items are managed, so it can be used for 

inventory and readiness planning.

“RFID technology gives us traceability 

of the entire supply chain, because we 

can trace items back to the manufacturer 

and the commercial warehouse all the 

way to the customer warehouse and 

point of issue,” Tsao said. “It also lowered 

our inventory levels and gave us more 

accurate visibility of that inventory.”

Unlike research and development 

for other DLA-managed commodities, 

projects relating to clothing and textiles 

are usually long term.

“Every five to seven years, we 

have a major accomplishment, then 

transition to another area,” Tsao said. 

“The goal is always to connect the 

various pieces of the supply chain and 

improve customer support.” 
10 www.dla.mil

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

acking inventory. Loading and 

moving pallets. Scheduling 

freight deliveries.

In the commercial world, 

employees manage these 

processes with the help the latest 

technologies. Companies like FedEx, 

UPS, and Amazon use robotic systems 

and real-time communications to 

increase speed, save time, cut costs and 

help reduce employee fatigue. Yet for 

years, government distribution has relied 

heavily on doing things by hand and 

using decades-old automation.

That’s about to change — at least 

at DLA.

DLA’s Strategic Distribution and 

Disposition Research and Development 

Program is conducting research in 

advanced technologies that range 

from warehouse mobile tablets 

that provide real-time inventory 

data to forklifts that drive 

themselves, with a little 

help from their friends.

DLA established 

the Warehouse 

Automation and 

Robotics Exploration 

Project to develop new 

technologies for DLA 

Distribution warehouse 

operations. “We’re 

excited to see how these 

cutting-edge robotic 

technologies can reduce 

the cost of operating 

large distribution operations 

and autonomously perform 

P

Story by John R. Bell

DOMO ARIGATO,

MR. ROBOTO

THE FUTURE OF DISTRIBUTION AT DLA
Loglines l May - June 2016 11

Autonomous guided vehicles can be small and used for maneuvering in tight spaces.

manual tasks efficiently and accurately,” 

said Navy Cdr. Michael Jefferson, DLA 

R&D’s deputy chief. Jefferson oversees 

the project, along with Manny Vengua, 

program manager for the R&D Strategic 

Distribution and Disposition unit. 

“These are truly emerging 

technologies which would elevate DLA to 

a leadership position in applying robotics 

to distribution operations,” Jefferson said. 

“Although most of these projects are still 

in their initial research phase — and full 

funding is a long way off — the likelihood 

is that each of these technologies will be in 

use at some DLA facilities in the next five 

to 10 years,” he noted.

“These emerging technologies are 

going to make DLA employees’ lives safer 

and easier,” Vengua added. “The common 

denominator is that these technologies 

reduce the potential for fatigue and injury 

for the human operator. This frees him 

or her to focus on accuracy and problem 

solving, perfecting 

the process to better 

serve the warfighter, 

and — best of all — 

not having to endure 

the physical strain of 

driving, standing, or 

lifting heavy items for 

hours at a time.” 

PUT A FORK IN IT

DLA warehouse 

employees may 

soon benefit from 

the arrival of the 

autonomous forklift, 

which can lift, transport, and deposit 

items without an operator on the vehicle. 

“Autonomous forklifts can perform 

many of the most basic tasks without a 

human operator,” Jefferson explained. 

“They can also save time and improve 

efficiency, because operators can quickly 

take control of the vehicle for manual use 

when needed, to manage more complex or 

unusual tasks. This eliminates the need to 

have two different forklifts available.”

Early research was done by the 

Army Logistics Innovation Agency, 

which partnered with the Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology. They developed 

a forklift that can respond to voice 

commands or instructions through a 

wireless network and 

operate without wires 

or magnetic floor 

stripes. That same 

technology has been 

adopted by a major 

forklift manufacturer of 

forklift for commercial 

use. Should these be 

implemented at DLA, 

improved productivity 

and reduced costs 

would help the 

program reach a return 

on investment in two 

years or less, once the 

program is mature, said Jefferson.

Autonomous forklifts still require 

people to operate them when a task 

requires the greater dexterity and judgment of a human operator—but they can 

free personnel to focus on tasks such as 

quality control and accuracy in the warehouse operation.

And they can help improve safety, 

according to the WAREP analysis. 

A significant portion of the forklift 

operational cost is due to accidents and 

injury. Driving forklifts is an inherently 

dangerous task. OSHA statistics indicate 

that there were 85 fatalities and 34,900 

serious injuries resulting from forklift 

operation in 2013. The most common 

cause of serious injuries was the driver 

being thrown off the forklift. One out 

of every six workplace deaths is forklift 

related. Autonomous forklifts could help 

reduce the exposure of DLA workers to 

forklift accidents.

THE GOLDEN RETRIEVER

The WAREP team envisions 

autonomous forklifts and two-armed 

robots picking and stowing pallets, 

totes and cartons on and off warehouse 

racks, but that material still has to be 

transported to and from waiting human 

workers for receiving or preparation for 

shipping, in some instances even from 

one warehouse building to another. 

For that, the team envisions 

autonomous guided vehicles, otherwise 

known as AGVs, moving material from 

receiving to storage and from storage 

to shipping. “Promising new navigation 

technologies allow AGVs to maneuver 

independently through a warehouse 

to retrieve and deliver material,” said 

Jefferson. “These systems can fill a variety 

of roles and can reroute themselves to avoid 

Autonomous forklifts still 

require people to operate 

them when a task requires 

the greater dexterity and 

judgment of a human operator, 

but they can free personnel to 

focus on tasks such as quality 

control and accuracy in the 

warehouse operation. Courtesy Photo
12 www.dla.mil

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

obstacles. More importantly, these systems 

can operate alongside people, safely.”

AGVs in various configurations 

will be tested to fill the many different 

requirements for moving material in a 

DLA warehouse operation. “Ruggedized 

AGVs with rough-ground capability will 

be evaluated for moving material between 

co-located warehouse buildings,” said 

Vengua. “More compact AGVs will be better 

suited for maneuvering between racks and 

transporting material within a warehouse. 

... The concept is not very different from 

Google Cars, which are driving themselves 

on California highways today,” said 

Vengua. “Instead of a busy highway, these 

AGVs will drive in and between warehouses 

located together on a base.” 

ARMS AND THE MAN OR WOMAN

Another technology considered for 

testing is the use of lightweight robotic 

arms mounted on an AGV base to create 

a versatile mobile robot to manage totes 

and cartons in the warehouse. The robot 

is envisioned to move independently to 

pick and stow totes and cartons, moving 

vertically on a pole mounted on the AGV 

base to reach material stored on the 

upper shelves of standard warehouse 

racks. The robot would then place the 

material on a transport AGV or a conveyor 

system to transport it to a human worker 

comfortably waiting at an ergonomic 

picking station. “Lightweight but powerful 

robotic arms have been developed that 

can function safely around humans,” 

Jefferson noted. “This same technology 

has been used to help paraplegics feed 

themselves, so they are highly dexterous 

and very safe.” 

Return on investment is crucial to any 

decision to implement new technologies 

and industry figures indicate that 

investments in robotic technology can 

result in a positive ROI in three years 

or less depending upon the application. 

Savings can result from accuracy, greater 

labor productivity, and a reduction in 

workplace accidents and injuries.

In addition, the tote and carton 

manipulating robots will reduce the 

reaching for and lifting of heavy items 

by humans, a potential source of injury. 

“One of the drivers of robotic technology 

for commercial distribution operations 

is worker safety,” Vengua said. “Industry 

pays a high price for medical and workers 

compensation benefits due to injuries 

incurred in performing strenuous 

warehouse tasks.” “One of our primary 

goals in this project has been to identify 

technologies which not only work safely 

with humans but also have the potential to 

enhance the safety of DLA’s most valuable 

resource, our employees,” said Vengua. 

THE EYES HAVE IT

Wearable technology is a growing 

trend in the consumer market as well as 

in industrial applications. Smart glasses 

are another technology the WAREP 

project is considering, to enhance worker 

productivity, accuracy and safety. Smart 

glasses typically consist of eyeglass frames 

or a headset with an optical projection 

device using a small glass prism extending 

from one side, to serve as a display screen 

in the corner of the user’s eye.

The glasses would guide employees to 

the material storage location and display 

the item to be retrieved, how many items 

are at the location being viewed, and 

other information that normally would 

require the employee to look away from 

the task to a computer screen or hand-held 

scanner. Boeing, for example, has tested 

the glasses for employees building wiring 

Wearable “smart” glasses could help DLA 

warehouse workers increase efficiency.

An automated guided vehicle parks in its 

charging location according to an operator’s 

command during a showcase of new equipment 

at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. 

Air Force Airman 1st Class Grovert Fuentes-Contreras
Loglines l May - June 2016 13

Booking ships to transport ocean containers to 

DoD locations around the world used to be a 

process with many redundant steps.

harnesses, replacing stacks of paper wiring 

instructions with a visual display from the 

smart glasses, reducing the error rate from 

6 percent to practically nothing.

“The applications for smart glasses 

are limited only by imagination,”said 

Vengua. “They can be used to reduce the 

training time for new employees because 

the glasses can be programmed to provide 

step by step guidance to perform a task.”

FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES

The armed services have for some 

time used unmanned aerial vehicles, 

better known as drones, for some 

intelligence gathering, reconnaissance 

and strikes against enemy forces. More 

recently, commercial sale of UAVs 

has expanded to the recreational and 

commercial sector. Some ecommerce 

companies are even exploring making 

product deliveries via UAVs. 

One application the WAREP team is 

exploring for UAVs is inventory accountability. UAVs configured with scanners 

that read bar codes or passive radio 

frequency identification have shown they 

can take accurate inventory counts in 

outdoor storage yards. The technology is 

being developed for UAVs to count inventory indoors as well. UAVs can autonomously fly a designated flight pattern 

indoors over bulk storage and in between 

racking to scan and count inventory.

“One key to customer service is 

maintaining an accurate count of the 

inventory,” Vengua noted. “Commercial 

retailers may lose as much as $450 billion 

from out-of-stock items, empty shelves, 

and misplaced product. They also incur 

high costs in the form of time spent 

conducting inventories.” 

UAVs are not able to count every 

type of inventory — especially small, 

loose items, such as washers and screws. 

However, UAVs can count bulk items and 

even cartons in racks, allowing people to 

focus their efforts on the small items.

CONTAINMENT POLICY 

Another promising development on 

the horizon will help DLA move its freight 

to customers more efficiently, according 

to Ria Blackwell, a lead traffic management specialist at the Transportation 

Office of DLA Distribution, in New 

Cumberland, Pennsylvania.

One of the things her group does is 

books ocean shipments of DLA items, using 

direct vendor delivery. DVD shipment 

sends the freight directly from the vendor’s 

facility to the customer, instead of through 

a distribution depot.

In the current process, a DLA 

Transportation specialist receives 

information a vendor provides on a form 

and manually enters it into a booking 

system, the Vendor Shipment Module. 

The DLA transportation specialist must 

then enter that same information a second 

time into the Integrated Booking System, 

used by Military Surface Deployment and 

Distribution Center, known as SDDC—

because VSM and IBS don’t communicate.

This redundant manual entry 

consumes a great deal of time, Blackwell 

said — and it keeps her team from 

focusing as much as they could on the 

things that matter.

“Because there’s no communication 

between the systems, we can’t decide which 

booking is the best value,” — meaning cost 

and speed of delivery, Blackwell said. “We 

know our vendors, where they’re physically 

located, their limitations, their history with 

the carriers and their ability to pick up at 

those locations. So we can make best-value 

decisions better than others.”

Her team’s Distribution Transportation 

Office Automation project would automate 

the information-sharing portion of the 

booking process between the Transportation 

Office and SDDC. This would free Blackwell 

and her team to focus on which routes are 

fastest, which carriers most reliable, and 

which ports best-suited to given shipments, 

she said.

In addition, the advancement would 

“significantly reduce the number of clerical 

errors and allow customers’ freight to move 

more efficiently,” Blackwell noted.

The team initiated the project about 

a year ago. The business case analysis 

is almost complete, and the team is 

now awaiting permission to gather 

requirements. 

— Photo Courtesy U.S. Coast Guard District 7

Courtesy Photo
14 www.dla.mil

esearch and development 

projects chartered by the 

Defense Logistics Agency 

are improving the shelf 

life of combat rations and 

ensuring the availability of packaging for 

condiments like hot sauce and mustard. 

The goal of both projects is to harness 

new and improved technologies to 

provide better products and services to 

warfighters, said Gloria Edwards, who 

manages DLA Logistics Operations’ 

research and development for items 

such as combat rations, field feeding 

equipment, garrison feeding, and bread 

and dairy products.

“There’s always been an effort to 

improve combat rations, and that work 

is now spreading to other parts of the 

subsistence supply chain. Improving 

processes and fixing problems is our role 

as much as it is a role of the individual 

R

Current research and development efforts 

by DLA are expected to identify alternate 

materials for pouches used to store high-acid 

condiments such as hot sauce and mustard 

that are included in.

Members of the 155th Sustainment Services 

Flight prepare unitized group rations for the 

155th Small Air Terminal, who traveled to 

Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia. UGR 

components are stored by DLA Distribution in 

San Joaquin, California.

services,” she said.

 Recent accomplishments 

resulting from research and 

development include a 35-percent 

reduction in volume and weight of 

the primary packaging for meals, 

ready to eat. The effort has helped 

lower the cost of shipping for 

the more than 30 million MREs 

ordered annually. 

Now, researchers are focusing on the 

storage of unitized group rations. UGRs 

are heat-and-serve meals that can feed 

up to 50 troops in a field environment. 

Customers can chose from seven 

breakfast menus and 14 lunch and dinner 

menus. Individual items for each menu 

are stored separately by DLA Distribution 

in San Joaquin, California, where they’re 

picked off shelves and packaged in an 

assembly area just before delivery.

URGs can be stored for three years 

Story by Beth Reece

RATIONS:

BETTER SEAL, LONGER SHELF LIFE Air Force Staff Sgt. Mary Thach

at 80 degrees Fahrenheit or six months 

at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but dry heat 

and a lack of air conditioning at the San 

Joaquin depot shortened the shelf life. 

Officials also had no way of monitoring 

the temperature of food items located on 

high-rise storage racks. 

“It was discovered that, at the highest 

level, temperatures were reaching 90 

degrees and above in the summertime,” 

Edwards said. 

Depot officials attempted to lower the 

temperature by installing 12 evaporative 

coolers, replacing roof vents with skylights 

for better ventilation, upgrading insulation 

and even turning off light fixtures. But 

without a monitoring capability, there was 

no way to track conditions. 

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Loglines l May - June 2016 15

Annette Silva

“Knowing what temperature the food 

is at all times is critical. This stuff costs 

money, and if it’s improperly stored, it 

has to be thrown away before it can be 

consumed,” Edwards added. 

In May 2015, DLA partnered with 

depot managers and Rutgers University 

to install 28 data monitors in the UGR 

storage area. Since then, the devices have 

recorded temperatures approximately 9 

degrees lower than those recorded before 

facility improvements were made. The 

project is now in phase two, which focuses 

on ration traceability. 

“Rations are taken from storage to 

the assembly area for packing, but the 

entire pallet isn’t always used,” Edwards 

said. “We’re looking at the warehouse 

management system to see when these 

items are going back into storage and how 

their shelf life is tracked.” 

Another project will identify 

alternate materials for pouches used to 

store high-acid condiments such as hot 

sauce. The company that produces the 

laminate currently used is shutting down 

its production, so the ration industry 

must find another laminate with an 

acid-resistant sealant layer. Without the 

acid-resistant layer, the acid attacks the 

adhesives between the laminate structures.

“That can cause gas formation and 

off-flavors during the three-year shelf 

life,” Edwards added. “We don’t want to 

go back to using glass for these items, 

because it adds extra weight when the goal 

has always been to make things as light as 

possible so Soldiers can carry more.”

Primary and alternate laminate 

suppliers, as well as four potential 

laminates, have already been identified. In 

the next phase, researchers at the Army’s 

Natick Soldier Research, Development 

and Engineering Center will convert each 

laminate into condiment pouches and test 

its chemical resistance with pepper sauce, 

buffalo sauce and ketchup. 

Edwards is also overseeing projects 

to review the duplication of tests and 

inspections for combat rations, as well as 

the ability of Microwave Assisted Thermal 

Sterilization to sterilize group-sized 

entrees and their components. 

“Currently, group-sized rations 

are produced using a labor and energy 

intensive stream retort process,” she said. 

“With MATS, the process is completed 

in minutes versus hours and results in 

better taste and texture, as well as higher 

nutrient retention. That ultimately means 

greater consumptions of rations and less 

food waste.” 

DLA partnered with Rutgers University in 2015 to install 28 data monitors at a DLA Distribution 

storage facility in San Joaquin, California, where unitized group rations are stored. The effort helped 

lower the temperature of items stored on high-rise storage racks, thereby increasing shelf life of 

UGR components. 
16 www.dla.mil

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

esearch and development 

programs are normally considered incubators for the newest 

cutting-edge technology. But 

the Defense Logistics Agency 

manages two R&D programs devoted to 

advances in manufacturing technologies 

that are truly ancient.

Metal forging and casting have been 

around thousands of years. The world’s 

oldest known casting dates from 3200 

B.C., and forging may be even older. 

The Romans worshipped Vulcan — the 

Greeks, Hephaestus — both gods of fire 

and the forge and mythical inventors of 

smithing and metalworking. Through the 

ages, man has used casting and forging 

to advance the human condition and to 

produce weapons of war.

Today’s warfighters still depend 

on metal for almost everything — from 

enormous ships to the smallest engine 

parts. To help meet this need, DLA’s 

casting and forging R&D programs invest 

where industry can’t or won’t invest in 

new technology to help industry create 

the parts that the military requires. 

The programs are part of the DoD’s 

Manufacturing Technology Program, 

or ManTech, designed to improve the 

quality, productivity, technology and 

business practices of industries providing 

goods and services to the DoD.

R

A large hammer forge at SIFCO Industries in 

Cleveland uses tons of pressure to form metal 

into high-strength military parts.

Story by Chris Erbe

Photos Courtesy DLA Logistics Operations 

NEW TECHNOLOGY,

ANCIENT INDUSTRY
Loglines l May - June 2016 17

Workers at Danko Arlington, Inc., a casting 

facility in Baltimore, Maryland, pour molten 

metal into a sand casting mold. Once cooled, 

the part will be removed and the sand recycled 

for use in another project.

Consider DLA’s challenges. Many 

items the military requires are so 

specialized, they are not suitable for mass 

production and thus are not attractive 

for industry to manufacture. Also, DLA 

needs domestic manufacturers to produce 

military parts in an era when much of the 

industry is overseas. Added to that, the 

military often needs a small number of 

very critical parts for legacy aircraft and 

ships — parts that manufacturers have 

long since stopped producing.

“If we don’t have people to make the 

parts we need, we’re in trouble,” said 

Dean Hutchins, manager of DLA R&D’s 

casting and forging programs. “It’s a 

competitive industry with a lot of pressure 

from overseas. We have a mandate 

to make certain things in the United 

States, but it’s difficult to get domestic 

manufacturers to start projects because of 

the heavy capital investment needed.”

DLA’s forging and casting R&D 

programs work with industry to help 

them produce the parts that the military 

needs. Part of the program’s purpose is to 

help industry fund startup projects. The 

programs also acts as a bridge, bringing 

together established manufacturers with 

military and university R&D programs to 

develop new technologies and processes 

that will help improve the production of 

military parts.

“We’re looking to improve the process 

to make it less costly and more efficient,” 

Hutchins said. “To work new ideas, we 

create consortiums that bring together 

industry associations and research 

universities like the University of Iowa, 

Case Western Reserve and the Colorado 

School of Mines. Foundries and forge 

shops help us experiment with whatever 

is being developed.”

Casting and forging are equally vital 

to the military because of the advantages 

that are inherent to each process.

Forging involves heating metal so 

that it is malleable, then pounding it 

with high pressure into the required 

shape sometimes using a metal form, 

called a die, to shape the metal. Think 

of the iconic blacksmith using a 

hammer to pound hot metal against 

an anvil. The advantages of forging are 

strength and durability.

“If you have a piece of metal the 

size of a loaf of bread and want to make 

it stronger, you would use forging 

techniques to compress it down to the 

size of a metal tube,” Hutchins said. 

“You’re closing gaps between molecules, 

Casting and forging are equally vital to the military because 

of the advantages that are inherent to each process.

creating grain flow and giving that metal 

a lot of strength and durability.”

To say the military needs highstrength metal parts would be an 

understatement. Bulkheads, hinges, 

engine mounts, brackets, beams, shafts, 

landing gear, wheels, brake discs and 

arresting hooks are examples of forged 

items on which the military depends. 

A heavy tank contains more than 550 

separate forgings while an armored 

personnel carrier employs more than 250.

Casting, which pours molten metal 

into a pre-shaped mold, is a good way to 

make complex parts. Motor parts are cast 
18 www.dla.mil

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

because of the curved internal passages.

“One casting method, die casting, 

starts with a metal mold from which we 

make a wax pattern,” Hutchins said. “The 

wax pattern is dipped into a ceramic 

slurry, so the ceramic can surround that 

wax. The reason we do this is because 

ceramic can hold and withstand the heat 

of molten metal. The wax is then melted 

out of the mold. When metal is poured in, 

wherever the wax was, the metal will takes 

its place and create a part.”

A short list of examples of military 

parts created from casting include cross 

bleed valves for the F-5 Jet Fighter; the 

transmission case for the Advanced 

Amphibious Assault Vehicle; ice cleats on 

the M1 Abrams tank; and hydraulic accumulator cylinders for Navy submarines.

Manufacturers choose casting as the 

most appropriate forming method for 

certain parts because no other method 

can meet the complexity, shape and 

tolerance requirements as efficiently 

and cost-effectively as casting. Creating 

the molds, called tooling, is the most 

expensive part of the casting process. 

“Once you make the tooling, which 

could cost very little or as much as $1 

million for a large item, you can pump 

the parts out quickly,” Hutchins said. 

“Casting is most cost-effective when you 

make parts in large quantities.”

With many weapon systems being 

extended and used decades beyond their 

initial expected life, the Department of 

Defense faces a big challenge in finding 

new cast or forged parts to keep this 

older equipment in use. It’s possible that 

the military can go for decades before 

needing to order certain parts, by which 

time the manufacturers have stopped 

producing them and possibly even gone 

out of business

“When procuring a part for a legacy 

aircraft when we haven’t bought one 

in 10 or 20 years, now we have to go 

back and either recreate the tooling or 

try to find it,” Hutchins said. “When 

that happens, we have a challenge on 

our hands filling that order. We have 

consistently found that cast and forged 

items make up a disproportionate share 

of the oldest back orders.”

A 2013 study showed that 13 percent 

of backorders and 20 percent of the 

oldest backorders are items that contain a 

casting or a forging.

To help meet the challenge, one of 

the casting program’s early projects was 

to create the Metalcasting Procurement 

Solutions Network, an online database of 

manufacturers that have the materials, 

tools and processes to make needed parts 

for DLA. The result was an increased 

number of bids from capable suppliers 

and a reduction in lead time and cost to 

the DoD.

In a current project, casting 

program participants are working to 

reduce or eliminate the need for lubricants during production of aluminum 

die-cast parts, which could result 

in reduced cost and environmental 

impact for the die casting industry. 

Normally, die casters use a liquid 

lubricant to coat the die so that the metal 

part will slip out easily. The lubricant 

An old-fashioned casting pattern made of 

wood. Once a pattern is used to make a part, 

it is stored in a warehouse in case the foundry 

gets an order for the same part in the future.

Molten metal cools inside the sand casting 

mold after being poured. Once the metal has 

cooled, workers break the mold and remove 

the part for inspection and further processing.
Loglines l May - June 2016 19

is messy and can be hazardous to the 

manufacturing environment. The project 

involves developing a coating for the die 

surface that will allow metal to separate 

from the die without sticking — much like 

Teflon is used in a frying pan to keep food 

from sticking. 

“We’ve just completed successful trials 

in January,” Hutchins said. “The Colorado 

School of Mines is doing the research, 

and Mercury Marine, a manufacturer of 

marine propulsion systems with their own 

aluminum-die-casting foundry based in 

Wisconsin, is testing the technology.”

The forging program is also seeking to 

improve its process through experiments 

like intensive quenching. Once hot metal 

is formed into the required shape, it is 

then “quenched,” or cooled quickly, which 

freezes the properties in its current state. 

Depending on how a part is cooled can 

influence the properties that the part 

exhibits, Hutchins said.

“It’s like the blacksmith heating up a 

sword red hot, beating it with a hammer 

and then putting it in cold water,” he said. 

“That’s quenching. It’s used to obtain 

specific mechanical properties. For some 

things you want the part to be ductile — to 

bend a little bit without breaking. Other 

things you want to be very strong and 

inflexible. Quenching at the right time 

can keep the properties of the metal in a 

desired state.”

DLA’s forging and casting R&D 

programs have several other projects 

under way. 

Currently, casting R&D program 

participants are working on a project 

to make improvements in casting 

modeling software that will identify 

and predict potential problems areas in 

mold designs; developing and testing 

high-fluidity aluminum and magnesium 

alloys that can be used in die-cast molds; 

and developing improved heat treatment 

procedures of cast high-strength steel 

that improve the mechanical properties 

of the welded areas (a project that 

received the 2015 Defense ManTech 

Achievement Award); and more.

Forging R&D program projects 

include cutting down forging processes 

by using parts that are cast nearly to the 

final shape, then finished through forging; 

using simulation software to identify the 

optimum design and forging process for 

the manufacture of a part; developing 

new welding technology for repairing and 

upgrading forging dies; and others.

Will new technology like additive 

manufacturing ever take the place of 

casting or forging? According to Hutchins, 

3D printing has a lot of work to be 

done before it can replace these ancient 

metalworking processes. For now, each 

method occupies a unique niche that 

makes it the manufacturing choice for 

certain parts.

In the meantime, DLA’s Forging 

and Casting R&D Program continues to 

develop new ways to cut costs, increase 

efficiency, improve manufacturing 

processes and promote innovations so 

that our nation’s warfighters will have 

the parts they need to complete their 

most critical mission. 

With many weapon 

systems being extended 

and used decades beyond 

their initial expected life, 

the Department of Defense 

faces a big challenge in 

finding new cast or forged 

parts to keep this older 

equipment in use.

Workers at Danko Arlington, Inc., inspect a 

newly finished part for the Navy’s Aegis Combat 

System recently removed from its mold.
20 www.dla.mil

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

ershey’s uses 3D printing 

to make chocolate kisses. A 

Minnesota man built a concrete 

castle using 3D printing, and 

prosthetics companies are 

using it to build custom arms and legs. 

Now, Defense Logistics Agency officials 

are looking into whether 3D printing could 

help lower the cost of some military repair 

parts and fill in gaps where material and 

manufacturing are sparse.

3D printing, also known as additive 

manufacturing, could change the way DLA 

provides parts in the future, said Kelly 

Morris, chief of research 

and development for DLA 

Logistics Operations.

“Imagine if we had an 

additive manufacturing 

machine and everything 

that goes with it at the 

Air Force’s logistics 

center in Oklahoma. We 

could send them the 3D 

technical data package for 

a particular part, and they 

could make it right there 

on site,” she said. 

This emerging technology could 

dramatically reduce the time it takes 

customers to get parts and in most cases 

minimize or eliminate the need for transportation and storage fees, Morris added. 

The possibilities are years away, but 

DLA’s research and development team 

Inside a massive 3D printer, a delicate head 

moves at lightning speed to precisely deposit 

heated plastic layer-by-layer to create a 

hardened part.

— Photo by David McNally, RDECOM

Story by Beth Reece

PARTS ON DEMAND

is already working with the military 

services to identify 10 parts for possible 

3D modeling and manufacturing. Items 

were selected based on such criteria as 

backorder status, how long they take to 

produce, whether manufacturers have 

the machines and skills to produce them, 

and whether material to create them by 

additive manufacturing is available. 

The top two candidates have been 

described by the Naval Air Systems 

Command as critical and hard to source. 

The first is a leading-edge extension for 

the AV-8B Harrier II jet, designed to 

improve airflow at high 

angles of attack and low 

airspeeds. The second is 

a ball fitting that mounts 

the engine exhaust duct 

to the airframe of the 

CH-53E Sea Stallion 

helicopter. 

Unlike traditional 

methods of 

manufacturing that 

follow a subtractive 

process and require 

machines like drills and 

mills to cut and shape material, additive 

manufacturing uses a laser-powered 3D 

printer to lay down successive layers 

of material, such as plastic or metal, to 

create functional parts and products. 

“If you’re forging something, you’re 

taking a piece of metal and heating it up, 

then hammering or smashing it into the 

design you want. There’s almost always 

excess material that needs to be trimmed 

away,” Morris said, adding that additive 

manufacturing leaves much less waste 

H

Additive manufacturing 

technology could 

reduce the time it takes 

customers to get parts 

and in most cases 

minimize or eliminate the 

need for transportation 

and storage fees.
Loglines l May - June 2016 21

Luefras Robinson

Tony Medici

although some machining or milling may 

be needed to complete the product.

The process starts with a 3D technical 

data package, or digital blueprint, that 

depicts all of an item’s specifications. 

For the initial parts DLA intends to have 

additively manufactured, the agency will 

do a limited test of contractors’ additive 

manufacturing capabilities. Those 

contractors will use 3D data specifically 

approved for additive manufacturing and 

produce parts for testing. 

After the parts are produced, DLA 

will work with the military services’ 

engineering support activities to evaluate 

feasibility of testing, evaluation and 

acceptance of parts, also known as firstarticle testing, into the supply system. 

The introduction of 3D parts into 

DLA’s inventory will require additional 

focus on data integrity as the agency 

meets the challenges of storing and 

accessing 3D drawings, added Tony 

Delgado, DLA’s 3D program manager.

“There’s a cyber security component 

here. When data is transferred between 

manufacturers and DLA, we need to 

ensure it’s done in a secure environment 

so there’s no interference and no one is 

changing the specifications,” he said. 

That will also lead to the need for 

training quality assurance specialists to 

certify that manufacturers are producing 

3D parts that comply with technical 

requirements. While the military’s 

engineering support activities are 

responsible for testing and certifying 

that additively manufactured parts meet 

structural standards, DLA maintains the 

role of quality assurance. 

“Even industry is struggling with 

training and certification. Pennsylvania 

State University and the University of 

North Carolina have academic programs 

specifically for additive manufacturing, 

so they are developing the workforce 

curriculum for that,” Delgado said. “DLA 

might have to bring those skills into the 

quality assurance arena so we understand 

A Navy instrumentation engineer demonstrates 

how the 3D ScanArm scans objects and creates 

digital models for printing. The reality of 3D 

printing is expanding across the Navy’s science 

and engineering community.

Mikael Mead, an engineering technician for 

Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pensylvania, removes 

a small production run of finished lens covers 

from the printing tray of a PolyJet 3D printer. 

Three-dimensional printers produce parts out 

of plastic and other durable materials. 

the designs and material qualifications 

when inspecting vendors.”

Defense Department officials have 

become more interested in additive 

manufacturing as the department works 

to increase innovation and embrace new 

technologies. DLA is helping to shape 

DoD’s additive manufacturing program by 

creating a repeatable process to identify 

suitable parts for additive manufacturing.

And just because a part can be 

produced additively and meet military 

standards doesn’t mean DLA or the 

military services should forgo traditional 

manufacturing, Morris said. Evaluation 

factors will include the cost of generating 

3D data, additive manufacturing costs, 

demand patterns and whether a part 

made additively has the same lifecycle as 

one produced with traditional methods, 

she added. 
22 www.dla.mil

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class John Benson

You’ve served with the agency in a 

variety of positions over the years, 

first as aide to former DLA Director 

Navy Vice Adm. Edward Straw, then 

as commander of DLA Aviation, and 

now as the Director of DLA Logistics 

Operations. What changes have you 

seen over this time?

DLA is a constantly 

evolving organization, and 

I’ve seen much of that change. 

When I was here initially 

working for Vice Adm. Straw, 

DLA Headquarters was still at 

Cameron Station, and we were 

primarily centered on parts 

and consumables. We had just 

moved into the distribution 

business, which was the second 

evolution of missions coming to 

DLA from the services.

When I commanded DLA 

Aviation, I witnessed a DLA 

positioned much closer to our 

warfighters. Business Systems 

Modernization also led to 

significant reorganization; 

we were more focused on 

customer-facing efforts. And 

there was also the name change 

from Defense Supply Center 

Richmond to DLA Aviation. 

Navy Rear Adm.

Vincent L. Griffith

DLA’s Director of Logistics Operations talks about DLA’s support to deployed 

warfighters, humanitarian relief, the nuclear enterprise and more.

Now as the J3, our warfighter 

support has expanded and 

improved even further. DLA has 

matured into a valued partner for 

whole of government because of 

the speed of our response across 

a full spectrum of operations. 

There’s a much more robust 

engagement with combatant 

commanders than we had before. 

My duties within DLA have 

changed, but my belief that DLA 

is a great partner to warfighters 

remains unchanged. 

How is Logistics Operations 

supporting the DLA Strategic Plan?

J3 is fully energized implementing the agency’s strategic 

Rear Admiral Vincent L. Griffith visits with DLA personnel at Naval Support Activity Bahrain during 

a recent visit to the Middle East.

A Conversation with . . .
Loglines l May - June 2016 23

plan. Not only are we the lead for 

its No. 1 goal — Warfighter First 

— but we’re directly involved in 

initiatives that support every goal 

in the plan. 

Under Financial Stewardship, 

we’re working with DLA 

Finance to lead quarterly Cost 

Summits with our customers, 

opening up DLA’s books to 

increase transparency. Our 

team is also leading the effort to 

improve collaboration with U.S. 

Transportation Command; we 

wrapped up a joint continuity of 

operations exercise with them 

in February that tested our 

organizations’ ability to fulfill 

warfighter needs in the event of 

denial of service attack. 

In the Strategic Engagement 

area, J3 has a team dedicated to 

looking at performance-based 

logistics as a way forward for 

DLA supporting DoD’s Better 

Buying 3.0 Initiative, as well. 

These are just a few examples.

One of the big shifts within the 

agency is a renewed emphasis on 

support to the nuclear enterprise, 

including the standup of the 

Nuclear Enterprise Support Office 

last year. How is this office making 

a difference in the readiness of this 

strategic national priority?

Our NESO team aligns 

resources across DLA, synchroniz-ing our support, engaging 

with our customers and partners, 

maintaining situational awareness of their issues, and resolving 

support gaps and shortfalls. 

We’re tied in tightly with the 

Navy, Air Force, U.S. Strategic 

Command and other stakeholders 

to maintain and improve support 

to the submarines; aircraft; 

ground-based missiles; other 

weapon systems; and command, 

control and communications 

systems that define the nuclear 

enterprise. We’re also aggressively pursuing improved materiel availability for all nuclear 

enterprise weapon systems. 

As part of its whole-of-government 

approach, DLA plays a large role 

supporting FEMA when disasters 

like hurricanes, earthquakes and 

wildfires strike the continental U.S. 

How does the agency stay ready 

to support these efforts, which can 

happen with little notice?

Where it makes sense for 

both DLA and other federal 

agencies, we extend our logistics 

expertise to other elements 

of government. Currently, we 

support more than 40 federal 

agencies. Our most established 

relationship is with FEMA for 

day-to-day operations and 

disaster response. We have 

developed pre-scripted mission 

assignments), which are 

essentially statements of work 

that DLA has indicated can 

support FEMA during disasters. 

Those PSMAs are approved and 

vetted through the enterprise 

and the Office of the Secretary 

of Defense, and they drastically 

reduce response times to our 

customers and the survivors 

of a disaster. They outline in 

detail what DLA needs to bring 

to an event rapidly and cost 

effectively. We also hold regular 

joint exercises with FEMA 

where we plan, prepare and 

practice it all. Last year, we took 

on support to the U.S. Forest 

Service’s firefighting role. While 

we’re always happy to provide 

support where it makes sense, 

we never forget that Warfighter 

Support is our No. 1 priority.

DLA is supporting USAID in its 

humanitarian efforts to lessen 

the suffering of refugees in Syria 

and Iraq. What were some of the 

challenges that came along with 

that operation?

In August, the State 

Department asked the 

Defense Department to use 

funds expiring at the end of 

September to help USAID 

obtain humanitarian assistance 

for refugees: lumber, plastic 

sheets, wash basins, dignity 

kits and more. It was a tight 

timeline, but by working closely 

with our partners, we got it 

done. Another challenge was 

getting the goods to nongovernment organizations 

that actually provided the 

goods to refugees. We set up 

intermediate staging bases in 

Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey 

where goods were received and 

accounted for, and then they 

DLA Public Affairs

“While we’re always happy to provide support where it makes sense, 

we never forget that Warfighter Support is our No. 1 priority.”
24 www.dla.mil

went to NGOs like UNICEF, the 

International Medical Corps and 

the Danish Refugee Council, 

who distributed them to 

refugees. Our efforts supporting 

USAID were a great example 

of finding ways to accomplish a 

very tough mission.

How is J3’s Research and 

Development team working with 

DLA Aviation and the military services on additive manufacturing?

Additive manufacturing is 

a fairly new concept, but we’re 

thinking big. Our vision is to 

use additive manufacturing to 

obtain obsolete and hard-tosource parts for DLA inventory. 

We’re partnering with Naval 

Air Systems Command and the 

other military services to enable 

prompt testing, evaluation 

and acceptance of these parts 

for use in the supply system. 

Ultimately we want to expand 

our additive manufacturing 

parts catalog for integration 

into the supply system; produce 

approved critical safety item 

parts; establish and maintain 

a parts-on-demand capability; 

and have a library of Technical 

Data Packages with 3D models 

to enable faster production. 

DLA’s customers count on the 

agency to hold enough inventory 

to take care of their known and 

unknown needs, which requires a lot 

of forecasting and planning. How 

are we improving in those areas?

One big initiative under 

the DLA Strategic Plan is 

restructuring the agency’s 

demand and supply planning. 

With the Center of Planning 

Excellence, we’re moving 

inventory forecasting to an 

enterprise level. Using data 

pulled from the Enterprise 

Business System, we’ll be able 

to perform deep statistical 

analysis to better align supply 

and demand. The demand and 

supply planners at the primary 

level field activities are being 

merged into materiel planners, 

each responsible for the overall 

“health” of an item. These two 

groups will work together to 

make sure we have enough in 

stock to satisfy our customers’ 

needs while ensuring we keep 

costs down. Huge in all of this 

is staying in lockstep with our 

customers, understanding their 

needs and working with them to 

get in on the ground floor of the 

weapons systems life cycle.

What are customers saying 

about DLA support to their 

organizations?

I engage with our customers 

all the time: on trips to various 

areas of responsibility, in 

forums with senior leaders and 

during direct communication. 

What I keep hearing is that 

our customers really like what 

we do. As budgets get tighter, 

they’re looking to DLA to find 

ways to maximize their buying 

power, and we’ll continue 

partnering with them to do that. 

What are three things you think 

every leader should focus on?

First, it’s leading by 

example. Leading is about 

identifying an objective, task 

or goal you want to accomplish 

and having your whole team 

come together to achieve the 

desired outcome. When you 

pick a course, you have to 

communicate to your folks 

through voice and action so 

the whole team owns that 

path. Equally as important is 

listening and caring about their 

wellbeing, something we’re 

emphasizing with DLA’s new 

Resiliency Program. Third, 

make sure your folks know 

you have their best interests in 

mind and provide them with 

the tools to be successful. When 

you pull all of that together, 

you get results. Nothing is 

more fulfilling for a leader than 

witnessing mission success and 

knowing that everyone on the 

team contributed their best to 

achieve it. 

Is there anything else you’d like 

to share? 

It’s a great honor to serve at 

DLA again, deeply involved in 

supporting amazing missions 

around the world. None of this is 

possible without the people who 

make up this great organization, 

from those working in depots in 

far off places to personnel standing 

watch 24/7 in our Operations 

Centers. Everyone has an 

important role to play in keeping 

DLA on the path to success. 

Thanks for all you do. 

Equally as important 

is listening and 

caring about their 

wellbeing, something 

we’re emphasizing 

with DLA’s new 

Resiliency Program. 
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Loglines l May - June 2016 25

PROCESS 

PROBLEM 

SOLVERS

s the Defense Logistics 

Agency goes about supporting 

more than 2,430 weapon 

systems, processing 100,000 

daily requisitions and 

managing nearly 5.3 million items over 

nine supply chains, a few problems are 

bound to occur. 

When those problems have to do with 

acquiring weapon system repair parts, DLA 

calls on the Weapon System Sustainment 

R&D Program to find solutions.

The WSSP spans multiple weapon 

systems and supply chains to improve 

internal DLA processes, provide new 

tools and methods, reduce costs and lead 

times and ultimately improve warfighter 

support. WSSP participants work closely 

with process owners to spot problems 

and, through research and development, 

develop solutions.

“The purpose of WSSP is to make sure 

the customer has parts available when 

they need them and that they meet certain 

quality standards,” said Leo Plonsky, 

Weapon System Sustainment R&D 

Program manager. “We do that through a 

series of projects aimed at that objective.”

Program participants recently 

tackled the problem of how DLA can set 

correct inventory levels for items with 

A

Story by Chris Erbe

Courtesy Photos

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY’S

unpredictable demand. 

The project, called Peak/NextGen, 

addresses two problems that have 

challenged DLA’s planning functional 

area: forecasting inventory levels for 

infrequently purchased items that have 

sporadic demand; and forecasting 

inventory levels for frequently purchased 

items that have sporadic demand. 

“Quite often, there needs to be some 

safety stock level so that the services will 

have parts available, but you can’t really 

forecast when they will need it,” Plonsky 

said. “Using Peak/NextGen, we’ve been 

able to improve materiel availability, which 

is a key metric in DLA, while making 

inventory planning more accurate.”

Peak/NextGen works by bringing 

together algorithms that help to balance 

the risks of being either under or 

overstocked. The process moves the focus 

from forecasting to metrics and allows 

managers to make a single, integrated 

decision across those metrics on the 

minimum and maximum inventory level 

for every item.

DLA began using Peak/NextGen 

in January 2013 to set levels for about 

550,000 items. Benefits included an 

increase in materiel availability, less 

procurement workload, fewer unfilled 

orders, fewer orders that were later 

canceled and more efficient investment of 

capital. For this project, DLA’s contractor, 

LMI, was chosen as a finalist for the 

2015 Franz Edelman Award from the 

Institute for Operations Research and 

the Mathematical Sciences. The award 

recognizes operations research and 

analytics work that improves organizations 

and benefits the people it serves.

“These planning techniques help 

us improve customer service while 

maintaining leaner inventory levels,” 

Plonsky said. “We’re not stocking what 

we don’t need.”

The Weapon System Sustainment Research and Development Program 

spans multiple weapon systems and supply chains to improve internal 

DLA processes, provide new tools and methods and ultimately improve 

warfighter support.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

26 www.dla.mil

Program participants also work 

on projects that benefit the Technical/

Quality functional area. 

DLA has had a serious problem with 

counterfeiting, especially of microchips. 

The WSSP, partnering with Applied DNA 

Sciences, Inc., came up with a solution 

to authenticate the source of microchips 

through a technique called DNA marking. 

The manufacturer marks the microchip 

with a tiny spot of DNA — a special 

epoxy-acrylate ink that is impervious to 

tampering — to identify parts as authentic.

DLA’s Product Test Center 

in Columbus, Ohio, has already 

implemented the procedures to ensure 

the integrity of the microchips DLA buys. 

“You can’t replicate it,” Plonsky said. 

“The DNA mark can potentially protect 

the entire logistical chain.”

The WSSP also works to protect the 

taxpayer from overpaying for military 

items. Recently, the WSSP partnered with 

2Is (two-eye-s), Inc., to provide a Webbased Price Research Decision Support 

Tool, which helps DLA employees 

determine whether proposed prices are 

reasonable for Class IX supply items 

(repair parts). Determining a fair and 

reasonable price is difficult in some 

Tackling problems, improving processes, saving time and 

money — these are what the Weapon System Sustainment 

Research and Development Program team does every day as 

process-problem solvers for DLA.

circumstances, and this new tool will 

help keep DLA from paying too much 

for needed items. DLA awarded 2Is a 

$7 million contract in November 2015 

to implement the technology developed 

under the R&D contract.

WSSP also assists with the end of the 

logistics chain — disposition. 

Program participants are currently 

working out a technique in the disposition 

area where DLA sells excess stock to 

industry, recouping some income. When 

there is a demand for that item, DLA buys 

the needed materiel back at a much lower 

cost than a new acquisition. 

“We have found over time that we 

have materiel that sits on shelves, and 

we have pressure to get rid of it as excess 

inventory, so we do,” Plonsky said. “Then 

when a customer wants it, we have to 

turn around and pay a contractor to 

manufacture new materiel.” 

The concept of the disposition 

project is to buy the materiel back from 

the companies that bought the excess 

inventory from DLA, which is cheaper and 

quicker than to have it manufactured new. 

Like other DLA R&D programs, the 

WSSP has been working with additive 

manufacturing projects, also known as 

3D printing. The projects are not so much 

about development of the technology, but 

are more about introducing 3D printed 

parts into the supply chain.

Project participants are creating 

an automated tool that identifies hardto-procure parts that could be created 

through additive manufacturing. A second 

project seeks to address sourcing hard-toprocure parts and obtaining engineering 

approval for 3D printed parts from the 

services’ Engineering Support Activities. 

“The key impediments to additive 

manufacturing are not necessarily 

the production of the parts but the 

qualification process,” Plonsky said. “Our 

goal is to get the right technical data 

packages so that the 3D printed parts 

will be qualified against the standards of 

a traditionally produced part. If all goes 

well, we’ll have new sources to produce 

hard-to-procure parts.”

In another project, WSSP strives to 

reduce problem procurements. Long 

acquisition lead time can result when DLA 

solicits bids and gets no quotes. These 

problem procurements can occur when, 

over time, a vendor changes ownership, 

goes out of business or undergoes some 

other change. 

“We’ve found that a good way to 

avoid problem procurements is to focus 

on “time since last buy,” or the last time 

DLA bought the part,” Plonsky said. “We 

establish a five-year cutoff. If the part has 

not been bought in five years, a review 

process kicks in.”

During the review process, product 

specialists in the technical/quality area 

update technical data, ascertain that 

there are suppliers who can provide 

the part and ensure the whole data 

package is complete. Participants hope 

that, by taking these steps ahead of 

time, DLA can virtually eliminate these 

types of problem procurements.

Tackling problems, improving 

processes, saving time and money — these 

are what the Weapon System Sustainment 

R&D Program team does every day as 

process-problem solvers for DLA. As long 

as there are better ways to accomplish 

DLA’s objectives, the WSSP will continue 

to develop solutions that will improve 

warfighter support and reduce the 

financial burden on the taxpayer. 

DNA marking consists of applying a DNA 

identifier to the surface of a microcircuit. 

A unique code, which can’t be replicated, 

re-engineered or digitally copied, is incorporated 

into the ink of the DNA mark.
Loglines l May - June 2016 27

GOOD EATS:

MILITARY FOOD RESEARCH

AND DEVELOPMENT

he Army marches on its 

stomach” is a phrase credited 

to Napoleon, but the need to 

feed a military on the move is 

a timeless concern. 

The Defense Logistics Agency helps 

supply high-quality, nutritious food 

in military dining facilities worldwide. 

On U.S.-based installations, at sea, and 

in theater, DLA has systems to ensure 

provisions reach their destinations on 

time and in good condition — primarily 

through DLA Troop Support. Its 

Subsistence division ensures customers 

worldwide get meals regardless of the 

operational or geographic challenges. 

Through more than a dozen varieties 

of MREs to fully functioning dining 

facilities, Subsistence works to provide a 

worldwide customer base with nutritious 

food in all climates.

In addition, the DoD Combat Feeding 

Research and Engineering Program, 

with representatives from the four 

military services and DLA, maintains 

the technological and intellectual 

base for this multifaceted initiative. 

Nutrition science, menu and recipe 

planning, sanitation, tactical food service 

equipment and training all take place at 

the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, 

Development & Engineering Center in 

Natick, Massachusetts. 

Food writer and journalist Anastacia 

Marx de Salcedo used visits to the Natick 

lab as the basis for her book “CombatReady Kitchen: How the U.S. Military 

“T Shapes the Way You Eat,” about the 

science and technology of military meals. 

The U.S. military’s prime food objectives 

are shelf life, durability, taste and cost, 

Salcedo wrote. “A combat ration, by 

Congressional mandate, must be able 

to last for three years at 80 degrees 

Fahrenheit,” she noted.

A great turning point in military 

culinary history began with Napoleon. He 

offered a 12,000-franc award to anyone 

who could create a method to keep food 

preserved for an army on the move. At 

the time, the average daily wage in Paris 

was less than 10 francs. Confectioner and 

chef Niccolas Appert devised a method 

to keep food fresh in airtight bottles for 

several months. He was awarded the 

12,000-franc prize in 1810 by Napoleon 

himself. Later that year, British merchant 

Peter Durand was granted a patent for 

preserving food in airtight tins. It was 

only a few years before this technology 

crossed the Atlantic. 

Eating During the American 

Revolution

Even before the United States 

declared independence, the Continental 

Congress in 1775 made provisions for the 

enlisted men in the Continental Army. 

They received peas, beans, vegetables, 

milk, meat and bread as part of their food 

allowance. Simple but portable and shelfstable fare, it was designed to keep troops 

healthy and on the move.

The Civil War

In 1861, John Ordronaux, in 

“Hints on the Preservation of Health in 

Armies,” published the first guidelines 

for an effective military diet. However, 

eating in the armed forces was not 

much different during the Civil War 

from how it had been during the 

Revolutionary War.

The invention of canning meant foods 

could be preserved for long durations. The 

technique worked, but mass production 

of canned foods was not available in 

the 19th Century. By the 1860s, canned 

foods were no longer new, but they were 

still not widespread. So canning did not 

dramatically change military fare by the 

time of the Civil War. 

HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS

Story by Chrissie Reilly, DLA Historian

Mealtime during the Civil War.
28 www.dla.mil

World War I

The Combat Feeding Research 

and Engineering Program is a modern 

institution, but it has a philosophical 

predecessor that dates back nearly a 

century. The first formal institution for 

U.S. military nutrition research was 

created when the Surgeon General’s 

office established a Food Division for 

“safeguarding the nutritional interests of 

the Army” in 1917. 

Maj. H.B. Monroe, the Mess 

Specialists Division director at Fort 

Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1942 recalled 

his own experiences with food during 

his time in the First World War. He said: 

“Plenty of times I sat down to a meal of 

cold coffee, baked beans, and goldfish 

[canned salmon] in the war.”

World War II

Before 1940, there was no unified 

procurement or distribution of food, and 

each military service was responsible for 

itself. In 1941, the Army Quartermaster 

Corps centralized perishable food 

management into one organization 

known as the Market Center System. This 

system used experts such as supermarket 

executives to supplement Army personnel. 

According to Col. Karl Detzer in “The 

Mightiest Army,” the Quartermaster Corps 

fed the soldier, clothed him, furnished 

his tents and canteens, knives, forks and 

spoons, his blankets and the packs to carry 

them in, and the belts to which to hook the 

packs and canteens.” 

Korea and Vietnam 

Despite advances in wartime nutrition 

and food production, troops during the 

Korean War were mostly stuck with 

leftover C rations from World War II, 

supplemented with canned fruit and 

cakes. A C ration dinner included hard 

bread; a canned main course; crackers; 

chocolate or hard candy; cigarettes; 

chewing gum; and coffee. Unlike today’s 

variety, the C ration entrées were simple, 

like canned spaghetti and meatballs, beef 

stew or franks and beans.

In 1953, the initiative to centrally 

procure semi-perishable subsistence and 

operational rations began. The Defense 

Subsistence Supply Center, a DLA Troop 

Support predecessor, was established in 

Chicago to perform these centralized procurement functions, with eight decentralized regional headquarters left to manage 

the perishable subsistence items. When the 

Defense Supply Agency, now DLA, in 1961 

began to further centralize the management of common items for the military, this 

included Subsistence. In 1965, the Defense 

Subsistence Supply Center, the Defense 

Clothing and Textile Supply Center, and 

the Defense Medical Supply Center were 

consolidated to form the Defense Personnel 

Support Center in Philadelphia. 

Even with the modernization of 

ration acquisitions in the 1950s, in 

1966 thousands of portable, walk-in, 

refrigerated storage boxes filled with 

perishable beef, eggs, fresh fruits and 

vegetables began arriving in Vietnam 

— a logistics miracle. 

Army historian Glen C. Morris wrote in 

the “Quartermaster Professional Bulletin” 

that few changes occurred in Army service 

between WWII and the Korean War, but 

“the war in Vietnam was unique because 

it presented no clearly defined battle 

lines.” Similar to recent conflicts, ground 

transportation was difficult, and the 

battlefield was fast-moving. 

One of the challenges of feeding 

troops during the Vietnam War was the 

absence of a permanently established 

fighting front. A solution to this was 

mobile kitchen trailers, known as 

MKTs, which carried food along with 

troops but usually had no means of 

refrigeration. C rations in Vietnam 

were only slightly different from their 

Korean War versions. (And cigarettes 

were still included, despite the 1964 

surgeon general’s report showing their 

harm and the 1965 law banning tobacco 

advertising on TV.)

HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS

K rations available in 1943.

Military rations during the Vietnam War.
Loglines l May - June 2016 29

DLA HISTORY PROGRAM

The DLA History Office provides historical support to all of the agency’s activities. It assists field activities with historical projects;

compiles and publishes annual histories; conducts oral history interviews; collects historical documents and organizes them in archives;

and conducts leader development activities such as senior leader staff rides. 

For more information, contact Chrissie Reilly at 703-767-6428 or christine.reilly@dla.mil

The Persian Gulf War

In response to the needs of a military 

on the move, the Meals, Ready to Eat, or 

MRE, and the Tray Ration, or T ration, 

were developed in the 1980s. T rations 

were hot meals for use when cooks were 

unavailable. MREs were designed to 

provide a day’s worth of sustenance in a 

convenient package. Designed to sustain 

the service member on the front lines, 

early MREs were not especially well-liked. 

Textures, flavors, and meal choices were 

lacking, earning MREs nicknames like 

“Meals Refused by the Enemy,” “Meals 

Rejected by Everyone,” and “Materials 

Resembling Edibles.”

Improvements began in the early 

1990s, with brand-name snacks and 

innovations such as the heat-resistant 

Hershey’s Desert Bar. Brand-name foods 

and spices, like Taster’s Choice instant 

coffee and Tabasco hot sauce, became 

part of the prepackaged meals. In 1993, 

the Flameless Ration Heater debuted, 

allowing a service member to heat a meal 

by simply adding water to a pouch. 

Afghanistan, Iraq and Beyond

Troops now have dozens of MRE 

menus, with options such as kosher and 

vegetarian. Professional tasters evaluate 

mouth feel and “nasal pungency.” 

When asked about preferences for 

specific MREs, Army veteran Joseph 

Parker recalled, “I’m not a vegetarian, 

but the ones that were actually the best 

were the meatless ones. My favorite 

was the cheese ravioli.” However, all 

was not lost even if one wound up with 

a less-than-adored MRE, as the MREs 

with the grossest entrees always had 

the best accompaniments, like M&Ms 

or Skittles.”

Parker said that one of his fondest 

memories regarding military eating was 

soldiers’ ability to come up with even 

better offerings by combining multiple 

MREs. “You’d find one MRE with a 

Dreamsicle cookie, and then another 

MRE with milkshake powder, which you 

would add a small amount of water to, 

and then use that as icing on the cookie,” 

he explained. “Cookies and milkshakes 

didn’t come together so you had to trade 

for them. ... That was the best: the frosted 

milkshake cookie.”

DLA employee and Army veteran 

Mason Lowery, who served during the wars 

in Iraq and Afghanistan, explained, “It is 

a soldier’s right to complain about MREs, 

but I loved them.” From the coffee packs to 

the jalapeño cheese spread, Lowery raved 

about the rations he ate. One of the best 

items he ever had from an MRE came from 

the Meal, Cold Weather ration. “The eggs 

were fluffy and delicious, and with the hot 

sauce that came with it, I think they were 

the best eggs I’ve ever eaten.”

The Meal, Cold Weather will not 

freeze and supplies extra drink mixes 

for countering dehydration. In addition, 

each meal contains around 200-300 

more calories over the standard MRE to 

maintain energy in extreme cold.

The future of military cuisine is 

unwritten. But whatever tomorrow’s 

warfighters are eating, DLA will have 

played a key role in creating, refining, 

manufacturing, packaging, and delivering 

Meals, Ready to Eat were developed in the 1980s. it — at home or overseas. 

No longer canned spam and candy bars, contemporary MREs are being infused with caffeine, 

omega-3 fatty acids and the anti-inflammatory curcumin.
30 www.dla.mil

DLA NEWSWIRE

DLA TROOP SUPPORT EMPLOYEES 

VISIT SUPPLIER, IMPROVE 

UNDERSTANDING OF INDUSTRY

Twelve employees from Defense 

Logistics Agency Troop Support’s clothing 

and textiles directorate gained a better 

understanding of the supply chain during a 

recent tour of DeRossi & Sons, which has 

been making uniforms for the U.S. military 

since World War II.

Ken Drexinger, a demand planner, said 

the visit gave him a newfound respect for 

the manufacturing process and the people 

who work in factories.

“The work happens so fast that it 

requires a high level of focus and attention 

to detail,” he said.

The visit was a result of employees’ 

desire to know how their roles contribute 

to the overall supply chain.

“I think if everyone understands that 

bigger picture, their job becomes more 

meaningful,” Drexinger added.

Similar visits are being planned for 

employees who work with suppliers to 

meet customers. 

– Jason Kaneshiro

More online: go.usa.gov/ceJEC

DLA JOINS AIR FORCE, ARMY TO TEST SKILLS IN EXPEDITIONARY LOGISTICS

Defense Logistics Agency personnel joined soldiers and airmen in March for Turbo 

Distribution, a joint exercise that tests mobility operations and expeditionary combat support by 

providing a dynamic venue with scenarios to challenge participants on complex operations in a 

deployed environment. 

The exercise uses U.S. Transportation Command’s Joint Task Force-Port Opening 

mission set, combining the Air Force’s swift airbase opening capability and the Army’s 

cargo movement and tracking and distribution capabilities.

DLA partners with the services in three JTF-PO exercises 

each year, but participants regard Turbo Distribution as one of the 

most important.

“This is by far the most realistic training we go through, and it gives 

us the opportunity to integrate and coordinate points of difficulties with 

our counterparts, making it easier to complete the mission when we 

are called upon,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Chavis Wright of the 821st 

Contingency Response Support Squadron. 

The JTF-PO specializes in rapidly establishing hubs for cargo 

distribution operations worldwide, to include remote or damaged 

locations, on short notice. Previous deployments include humanitarian 

assistance missions to Haiti, Pakistan and Japan, and contingency 

deployments in support of military operations in Eastern Europe, the 

Middle East and South America. 

– Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert Hicks

More online: go.usa.gov/ceJpk
Compiled by Beth Reece

Loglines l May - June 2016 31

DLA, AFRICOM EXTEND PARTNERSHIP

The Defense Logistics Agency and U.S. 

Africa Command in February signed a threeyear agreement that outlines and extends DLA’s 

support to the regional command.

“DLA has really stepped up by giving us 

a full team of subject matter experts that will 

make an immediate difference when we have to 

react rapidly to a situation on the continent. We 

couldn’t do it without DLA,” said Paul Brown, 

AFRICOM deputy director for logistics.

Brown said the most prominent example 

of DLA’s support to AFRICOM was during 

Operation United Assistance, the U.S. military’s 

response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West 

Africa. He called the operation a “huge logistics 

lift” involving moving thousands of troops and 

medical equipment in a matter of weeks.

DLA’s presence on the AFRICOM staff 

has expanded since then, and the current 

agreement calls for 11 fulltime employees 

to serve with AFRICOM counterparts. The 

agreement also states that DLA representatives will be integrated into AFRICOM’s 

planning processes. At AFRICOM, planners 

prepare for everything from annual exercises 

like Flintlock 2016 to crisis operations like 

Operation United Assistance. Planners consider how, when and where to sustain forces 

and who provides that sustainment. 

– Army Staff Sgt. Christopher C. Klutts

More online: go.usa.gov/ceJv3

ENERGYSpring 2016

SOURCE

PEOPLE & CULTURE

Defense Logistics Agency Energy

WORKFORCE RESILIENCY WEBSITE LAUNCHES

A new workforce resiliency webpage is now available for DLA employees and their families 

to use in developing behaviors and skills to cope with today’s challenging work-life environment.

The workforce resiliency website offers definitions to assist in understanding the DLA 

resiliency model and its supporting pillars, as well as links to training, local field activity resiliency 

programs and DLA activities that assist in building resiliency.

“We promised our employees the tools and resources needed to help them become more 

resilient. This website is one of those tools,” DLA Chief of Staff Renee Roman said. “As we go 

forward, we’ll add more links, articles and useful videos. We hope that in the very near future it 

will be a ‘one-stop shop’ for DLA employees seeking to know more about resiliency.”

Resiliency is an agency core value and, according to DLA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Andy 

Busch, a vital part of the foundation of all DLA actions and decisions made to support the agency 

workforce, customers and stakeholders. Fortifying workforce resiliency is also part of the DLA 

Strategic Plan for 2015-2022. 

– DLA Public Affairs

More online: www.dla.mil/info/resiliency.aspx

DLA ENERGY’S 

ENERGY SOURCE MAGAZINE

FOCUSING ON PEOPLE AND CULTURE

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE:

• DLA Energy’s continuing education potential

• More rotational programs support workforce development

• Acquisition excellence provides foundation for employees

• Quality Assurance Representatives qualified and up-to-date on training

• Small group mentoring program developed

Available Now!

HTTP://WWW.DLA.MIL/ENERGY/ABOUT/LIBRARY/ENERGYSOURCEMAGAZINE
32 www.dla.mil

I

t’s the High Mobility Multipurpose 

Wheeled Vehicle, slowly being 

phased out of service by the 

Department of Defense.

As the Defense Logistics Agency 

continues to dispose of thousands of 

Humvees every year, it’s been looking 

at ways to recoup more money for the 

taxpayer. DLA recently began auctioning 

some unarmored Humvees for off-road 

use only, and private resale of ex-DoD 

vehicles has happened on and off the last 

few decades. And someday soon, direct 

DoD sale of three particular models — 

whether for scrap, parts, or legal road use 

— may become a reality.

That’s the takeaway from a recent 

project, said Manny Vengua, program 

Story by John R. Bell

manager for the Strategic Distribution and 

Disposition unit at DLA Distribution.

The SDD team’s business case analysis 

looked at the pros, cons and risks of selling 

to the public any of the roughly 55,000 

Humvees scheduled for demilitarization, 

all of which require a “DEMIL code C” 

designation. DEMIL Code C applies to 

items that the U.S. Munitions List requires 

be removed before sale. Removing these 

components — such as radio mounts, 

weapons sights, armor and cryptographic 

gear — is required for a demilitarization to 

comply with law and regulation.

According to Vengua, most Humvees 

are sold for scrap at a price of under 

10 cents per pound. At the same time, 

there is consumer demand for these 

vehicles — even though they cannot 

legally be taken on the public roads. 

Before 2006, AM General and, later, 

General Motors sold a civilian variant 

of the Humvee, the Hummer. But the 

Humvee, though outwardly similar, is not 

a model registered with and tested by the 

Department of Transportation.

Because of this and because 

the military variant lacks the safety 

and comfort of the civilian vehicle, 

demilitarized Humvees can legally 

be used only as off-road vehicles or, 

rarely, under the DOT “show or display” 

exemption. They therefore command a far 

lower selling price than the used civilian 

Hummer vehicles, of which low-mileage 

examples in the best condition can sell for 

nearly $100,000.

A mechanic washes off an up-armored 

Humvee outside the 1st Battalion, 401st Army 

Field Support Brigade vehicle maintenance 

facility at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar.

Dustin Senger

. . . MAYBE

COMING SOON TO

I IT ONLY COMES IN TAN,

OLIVE DRAB OR

WOODLAND CAMOUFLAGE.

IT GETS ABOUT

12 MILES PER GALLON

ZERO TO 60:

IT’S ABOUT 30 SECONDS.

YET A LOT OF PEOPLE

MAY WANT TO BUY ONE.

A TRAIL NEAR YOU
Loglines l May - June 2016 33

Army Staff Sgt. Tina Villalobos

The SDD group’s analysis looked at 

each major component of the Humvee, 

identifying the parts that would need to be 

removed before the vehicle could be sold 

to the public. Some parts pose a danger, 

some were designed using classified or 

sensitive systems, and others are just not 

relevant to civilian use, Vengua said.

His team’s analysis showed that three 

models might eventually be salable: the 

M1037 Shelter Carrier, the M1097 Tall 

Cargo/Troop Carrier and the M1113 

Shelter Carrier. If these models were saved 

from the crusher, the military service that 

owns the vehicle or a contractor would be 

asked to demilitarize the vehicle. Then, 

DLA Disposition Services would be asked 

to confirm the demilitarization.

One option the SDD team explored 

was to continue the status quo — having 

DLA Disposition Services demilitarize all 

Humvees it receives. This option poses 

no additional costs or risks, Vengua said. 

Demilitarization would be done by a 

vendor who would pay DLA for salvage 

rights to the vehicle under a DEMIL as 

a “condition of sale” contract in return 

for ownership of the scrap. The average 

Humvee nets around $900 in scrap value 

to DLA. But then, after demilitarization of 

what remains, little of value is left.

A second option is to have the 

military services or a contractor perform 

“key point” demilitarization and then 

have DLA Disposition Services sell the 

trucks through a contractor. This would 

return $4,500 to $5,300 to DLA for each 

Humvee sold, depending on whether 

the labor is done by the services on site 

or at a central contractor facility. The 

potential profit ranges from $134 million 

to $156 million, Vengua said. However, 

this option would require approval 

from the Department of Commerce 

and the Department of State as to the 

classification of Munitions List items. 

A final alternative would authorize 

salvage dealers to sell parts that 

don’t need to be demilitarized on the 

aftermarket, motivating 

these dealers to bid 

higher for the salvage 

rights. Because of the 

existing GM Hummer 

models already in 

civilian garages, items 

such as engine parts, 

seats and even tires 

command enough of a 

profit that resellers are 

interested, said Vengua. 

Through a combination 

of demilitarizing some 

vehicles (when practical and legal) 

and removing salable parts from the 

remaining models, DLA could recoup 

almost $156 million on the nearly 

55,000 vehicles, at minimal risk, 

Vengua said.

One problem is that the original 

equipment manufacturer — meaning AM 

A final alternative would 

authorize salvage dealers 

to sell parts that don’t 

need to be demilitarized 

on the aftermarket, 

motivating these dealers 

to bid higher for the 

salvage rights.

General — officially opposes the sale of 

surplus Humvees because they weren’t 

designed to meet DOT’s Federal Motor 

Vehicle Safety Standards.

In addition, the Army Tank 

Automotive Command adamantly 

opposes these sales because of safety and 

security concerns if unauthorized material 

is inadvertently released to the public. In 

addition, the existing mutilation contracts 

guarantee contractors a minimum 

amount of scrap — and an increase in 

sales of these vehicles could potentially 

reduce that amount.

Whichever eventual path DLA 

takes, DoD will work with the agency to 

ensure compliance with 

DEMIL regulations, 

said Jeff Garrett, the 

DoD DEMIL program 

manager, who worked 

with Vengua’s team on 

the analysis. “The key is 

to balance and maintain 

policy compliance with 

proper procedures and 

execution for disposition 

of excess property,” 

Garrett said.

Vengua agreed. 

“DLA is always seeking ways to increase 

the revenues it can recoup for the U.S. 

taxpayer,” he said. “This one example of 

how our team continually works to find 

innovative approaches to problems that 

could beneficial the agency. It may not be 

as glamorous as other research we do, but 

it’s just as important.” 

Soldiers and airmen prepare to load Humvees 

aboard a C-5 for transport from Travis Air Force 

Base in Fairfield, California, to Moffett Air 

Field in Sunnyvale, California, during the Big 

Logistics-Over-The-Shore exercise.
I AM

My name is: 

Wallan Hashimoto.

I am: 

 A management and program analyst for DLA Disposition Services Pacific.

Describe your job in a sentence:

For the Pacific Region office, which links headquarters and field sites throughout the region, I help 

manage resources such as finance, travel, training, personnel and support agreements that help sites 

provide world-class service to the warfighter. 

How long have you worked at DLA?

I’ve worked for DLA Disposition Services six years, beginning as a student summer hire. After 

earning my master’s, I was picked up full-time as a property disposal tech, later got into the DLA 

Corporate Intern Program and eventually moved into my current job.

What is your favorite thing about working for DLA?

I really enjoy helping customers. At field sites, the primary customer is the warfighter, but we also 

provide excess property to federal, state and local agencies. One day I’d get a call from a sheriff’s 

office asking about flashlights. Another day we had the local Air National Guard needing a medical 

gurney. Or we’d be helping schools get computers. You never knew what the day would bring. 

What are your best memories of working here?

My coworkers. At every place I’ve worked at DLA, there’s been a sense of family. At every stage, I’ve 

met smart, innovative, generous people who go the extra distance to make you feel part of the team. 

That’s what sets DLA apart from other organizations I’ve worked for. I’ve 

always felt our work is serving a larger purpose — a commitment to 

help each other and others. Now that I work daily with folks from Energy, 

Installation Support, Troop Support, Distribution and DLA Pacific, I see 

how the PFLAs help support the warfighter in the Asia-Pacific region.

How do you make a difference?

I try to treat everyone how I would want to be treated, how I would 

want a family member to be treated — with respect, integrity and 

kindness. When I deal with our folks on an isolated base in Northern 

Japan, I keep in mind I’m their contact with HQ multiple time zones 

away. Or if we have an employee deployed to the area who has 

questions or is trying to arrange training here so others don’t have to fly 

halfway around the world. I’m very aware that without help from others, 

I couldn’t support our folks who directly support the warfighter. 

Wallan Hashimoto