Logistics In Informationized War And Its Enlightenment To Modern Logistics

In World War II, for the purpose of war the U .S. Army needed to carry on the military supplies stretching across European, America and Atlantic. A series of technologies and methods were used in personnel movement, manufacture of military goods and equipments, transportation, supply, disposition, maintenance and so on ,to safeguard the supplies and meet the war needs at the smallest costs with the shortest time .These achievements in fact may sum up as to the overall plan arrangement and the total management of the purchase of military supplies, the transportation, the warehousing and the distribution , which played a significant role in the victory of the war .Afterwards the methods and technologies in logistics were summarized and applied to civil use ,thus forming systematic theory ,method and technology, promoting the concept of logistics.With the rapid development of the information technology, the communication and new military revolution, the logistics is also experiencing the tremendous changes .Modern warfare's basic shape is the informationized war with the system-to-system resistance. As the important component of the modern military strength, the logistics, tending to be united and integrated, must be inevitably consistent with operational system. In informationized war the main operational modes are nonlinear operation and asymmetric operation, requiring multi-dimensional logistics support. The informationized war battlefield altitude is transparent, the logistics support must momentarily keep in contact with army's material requirement through precise logistics; with the rapid progress of informationization, the logistics support must speed up the capability of quick response, mobility and supplies , realizing the "zero distance" logistics .Then, from the strategic delivery, logistics, mobilization, war supplies and international logistical support contrasts are made between U.S. Army logistics in the Gulf War and in Iraq War. In Iraq war U.S. Army relies on its global logistics system asset visibility system, which enables the relevant departments to follow personnel flow, equipment flow and material flow, ensuring a high degree of transparency of material supply and management, thereby greatly increasing the effectiveness of logistics through automatically recognition technology, global transport network, the joint resources information storage and decision support systems. Then this paper concludes the characteristics of logistics in modern war.Logistics support in war is relatively independent from logistics, however, they are mutually compatible and coordinated. Firstly, they are compatible in content. Transportation, packing, warehousing in logistics can be studied together with strategic delivery, war supplies Secondly, it lies in compatibility of logistics. Only if it does not reveal the military secrets, advanced technologies and concepts can be transplanted to logistics, enabling to promote the development.