Summit sets way ahead for Army Prepositioned Stocks

Photo By Cameron Porter | A line of military Heavy Equipment Transport line-haul trucks is staged at Coleman work site in Mannheim, Germany. Each truck is hauling equipment and vehicles, such as M1 Abrams main battle tanks as seen here, to Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany. There, the vehicles and equipment pieces will be issued to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division deploying to Germany from Fort Stewart, Georgia. (U.S. Army Photo by Maj. Allan Laggui)  

REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL, UNITED STATES

03.03.2022

Story by William King 

U.S. Army Materiel Command   

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – Leaders and experts from across the Army met for the Army Prepositioned Stocks Summit March 1-3 at Army Materiel Command headquarters and virtually.

The summit was hosted by AMC in coordination with co-chairs from the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, G-3/5/7, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, G-4. The purpose of the summit was to provide deliberate analysis and guidance while synchronizing APS decisions and operations with other key Army processes.

“APS is a critical component of the mobility triad (with sealift and airlift) – it’s a game changer,” said Lt. Gen. Donnie Walker, AMC deputy commanding general. “We have to think of APS differently than we have in the past.”

Outputs from the summit will help inform discussions at other planning and strategy development and implementation forums, including the Army Modernization and Equipping Conference, and align APS modernization and infrastructure funding requests with Army priorities.

What is APS?

APS are strategically placed sets of equipment that are ready for Soldiers to draw and move out. APS reduces the strategic lift requirements for deploying units by providing the theater-specific combat equipment required to respond rapidly, speeding troops to the frontlines.

More than just tanks and artillery pieces, APS includes combat sustainment and enablers such as Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR). Managed by AMC through Army Sustainment Command, the Army currently maintains five APS sets aligned with a geographic combatant command and one multi-apportioned set afloat.

The Army APS Strategy

The Army is employing a 21st-century APS strategy to ensure the right equipment is postured in the right regions for rapid employment. The Army’s APS Strategy is the way ahead for how the Army can achieve a Multi-Domain Operations-capable APS with the full range of capabilities to effectively support the joint force across the continuum of competition, crisis and conflict.

Through several lines of effort, the Army APS Strategy focuses on the employment, exercising and equipping of APS sets worldwide. A more responsive, resilient and flexible APS will enable commanders to compete, deter and win.

The Army prioritizes ensuring APS sites around the world and afloat are located, sized, configured and ready to be issued for training, or during crisis or conflict. Part of the Army APS Strategy is using APS in competition in support of exercises and deployments of regionally allocated forces, not just as a war reserve.

Last year, the 405th Army Field Support Brigade repositioned thousands of pieces of equipment in Europe to support commanders in the European and African theaters. In the Indo-Pacific, the 402nd AFSB is currently downloading, exercising and maintaining equipment from APS afloat, demonstrating its ability to project and sustain combat power across the theater.

In support of Soldiers from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division deploying from Georgia to Germany to assure NATO allies and partners in Europe, the 405th AFSB activated its APS sites to outfit the brigade with hundreds of pieces of equipment. This includes tracked vehicles such as the M1 Abrams main battle tank and M2 Bradley fighting vehicle, Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, Paladins, generators, Palletized Load Systems and Load Handling Systems, Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks, and more.

Speaking to defense reporters in February, Gen. Ed Daly, AMC commanding general, emphasized that APS is postured and ready to support operations worldwide.

“Army Prepositioned Stocks throughout the world right now, whether it’s Europe, the Pacific, Central Command or afloat, are ready. They’re ready to be issued and they’re ready to respond to crisis or conflict,” said Daly.

• Date Taken: 03.03.2022
• Date Posted: 03.03.2022 16:14
• Story ID: 415710
• Location: REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL, US