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Sunday, July 10, 2011

Defence logistics and role of society towards the Armed Forces and war fighting.


Logistics - (military definition) The science of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of forces.... those aspects of military operations that deal with the design and development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation and disposition of material; movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel; acquisition of construction, maintenance, operation and disposition of facilities; and acquisition of furnishing of services.

It means combat service support

Defence logistics is one of the important aspect of successful defence system.

In most countries,the defence logistic occupies pride a place,

It includes-

Design, development, acquisition, storage, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and disposition of materiel.

Transport of personnel.

Acquisition or construction, maintenance, operation, and disposition of facilities.

Acquisition or furnishing of services.

Medical and health service support.

The word "logistics" is derived from the Greek adjective logistikos meaning "skilled in calculating". The first administrative use of the word was in Roman and Byzantine times when there was a military administrative official with the title Logista. At that time, the word apparently implied a skill involved in mathematical computations.

Logistics, occasionally referred to as "combat service support", must address highly uncertain conditions. While perfect forecasts are rarely possible (this is also true in most sciences) forecasts models can reduce uncertainty about what supplies or services will be needed, where and when they will be needed, or the best way to provide them.

Ultimately, responsible officials must make judgments on these matters, sometimes using intuition and scientifically weighing alternatives as the situation requires and permits. Their judgments must be based not only upon professional knowledge of the numerous aspects of logistics itself but also upon an understanding of the interplay of closely related military considerations such as strategy, tactics, intelligence, training, personnel, and finance.

However, case studies have shown that more quantitative, statistical analysis are often a significant improvement on human judgment. One such recent example is the use of Applied Information Economics by the Office of Naval Research and the Marine Corps for forecasting bulk fuel requirements for the battlefield.

In major military conflicts, logistics matters are often crucial in deciding the overall outcome of wars. For instance, tonnage war - the bulk sinking of cargo ships - was a crucial factor in World War II.

The successful Allied anti-submarine campaign and the failure of the German Navy to sink enough cargo in the Battle of the Atlantic allowed Britain to stay in the war and establish the second front against the Nazis; by contrast, the successful U.S. submarine campaign against Japanese maritime shipping across Asian waters effectively crippled its economy and its military production capabilities.

More generally, protecting one's own supply lines and attacking those of an enemy is a fundamental military strategy; an example of this as a purely logistical campaign for the military means of implementing strategic policy was the Berlin Airlift.

Military logistics has pioneered a number of techniques that have since become widely deployed in the commercial world. Operations research grew out of WWII military logistics efforts. Likewise, military logistics borrows from methods first introduced to the commercial world.

The Kargil Conflict in 1999 between India and Pakistan also referred to as Operation Vijay (Victory in Hindi) is one of the most recent examples of high altitude warfare in mountainous terrain that posed significant logistical problems for the combating sides. The Stallion which forms the bulk of the Indian Army’s logistical vehicles proved its reliability and serviceability with 95% operational availability during the operation.

The role of society towards armed forces and war fighting

The society should be deeply embedded towards armed forces

Especially in times of conflict and warfighting, the citizen participation is utmost important

At present India faces many problems internally as well as externally

The solution to most of this problem largely depends on citizen attitude and participation

Terrorism,

drug trafficking,

Maoist insurgency,

infiltration,

guerilla warfare,

secessionist movements,

separatist movement etc are largely making troubles to armed forces

More over the citizen perception of armed forces should change

The social profile of armed forces is that it has become the last career option of most Indians

There is growing citizen army disconnect in India

Especially with reference to defence logistics,the citizen role is very important

The design and development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation and disposition of material; movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel; acquisition of construction, maintenance, operation and disposition of facilities; and acquisition of furnishing of services etc can be achieved only through successful citizen involvement.

Most people think that protection of territorial integrity of india is the sole duty of defence forces,it is wrong to assume,

More than defence forces it is the role of citizen to protect India,especially in Kashmir,North East India

DEFENCE AND STRATEGIC STUDIES ,TEACHING POINTS PREPARED BY BIJU P R,ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN POLITICAL SCIENCE,GBC,TLLY

1 comment:

  1. I am going to bookmark this! I need to return and read it again.

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