monumental task-one that system-analysis techniques only recently have made possible. Second, it accumulates in one location all the information needed to manage the entire system effectively, an accomplishment now possible because of recent advances in electronic data processing.

The advantages of this new system are clearly evident. It provides central knowledge of all materiel assets in support of a specific weapon system, whether they are in the hands of the operating command, the central depot supply system, or the contractor. It eliminates much burdensome paper work at the point of use. The user provides consumption data, and automatic resupply is forthcoming-the record-keeping is accomplished electronically at the central location. Most important of all, for the first time a significant segment of the total logistic system can be managed as a whole, regardless of where the items of materiel are located or the logistic actions are taking place. This system is now being used in supporting the Atlas, Titan, and Thor weapon systems. It is a significant step forward in the development of scientific management in logistics.

Another milestone in logistic-system design will be reached with the introduction of the Minuteman weapon system. The common complaint of all logisticians has long been that problems of logistic support usually are not considered until well along in the development of a new weapon-so far along that many times the main design characteristics of the new weapon are already crystallized and can no longer be influenced toward easier supportability. Of course in some cases state-of-the-art limitations leave the logistician no choice but to accept the weapon as it is and support it as best he can. The first generation of ballistic missiles illustrates this point. Atlas, Titan, and Thor are extremely difficult to support. They are expensive systems primarily because of the logistics costs involved. The liquid oxygen used as an oxidizing agent must be kept at several hundred degrees below zero and is subject to constant boil-off. For this reason these missiles cannot be maintained in a ready-to-fire condition but must be fueled shortly before firing. A tremendous ground complex is required to accomplish the last-minute fueling and checkouts, all within the extreme time limitations imposed by the modern warfare requirement for instant response. Clearly a simpler system was required.

The Minuteman is such a system. It is designed to overcome the logistic difficulties inherent in maintaining missiles such as Atlas, Titan, and Thor in an adequate state of operational readiness. The Minuteman's solid-fuel propulsion system enables it to be maintained in a ready-to-fire condition over long periods of time. Its checkouts are for the purpose of locating malfunctions and can be performed at periodic intervals, free from the splitsecond timing of last-minute countdowns. Because it can be prepared for firing long in advance, Minuteman requires only a fraction of the personnel and equipment per site required by Atlas, Titan, and Thor. Few major weapon systems have been so greatly influenced in their basic design by logistic support considerations. Because of the increasing importance and costs of specialized logistic ground support complexes, this precedent of designing supportability into advanced weapon systems seems likely to continue.

Working within the logistic framework established by these design criteria, the Air Force Logistics Command is well along in the establishment of a logistic support system for the Minuteman. Ogden Air Materiel Area was given logistic support management responsibilities shortly after the assembly and test contractor had been chosen. Much of the detailed planning is now completed. Construction will begin soon on a facility that represents a new concept both in logistic support and in Air Force-industry relationships. This plant, to be used for final test and assembly of the missile, will be Air Force owned, a part of Hill Air Force Base, but will be operated under contract by the assembly and test contractor. This provides the Air Force the support capability essential for a first-line weapon system with the important operational role of the Minuteman. At the same time it best employs the contractor's experience gained in the course of the development program and utilizes his wealth of management, production, and maintenance skills. Other buildings at Hill Air Force Base are being modified to adapt them for the specialized support required by the Minuteman. When the first production missile is accepted by the Strategic Air Command, we will have in-being in the Ogden Air Materiel Area the most complete Air Force support capability developed to date for a first-line missile weapon system.

In many respects the problem of supporting a mixed force is not significantly different from the challenge always facing the logistician. Even while he is bringing the most highly developed techniques of his art to bear on designing and operating support systems for missiles and other advanced systems, he must be maintaining the forces in-being in a condition of instant readiness. The logistic system that he constructs must therefore be made up of many specialized support systems. At any point in time some of these are supporting the force in-being, others are being readied for advanced weapons in the process of development, and still others are being phased out as the weapons they support become no longer essential. For the immediate future, the manned aircraft will remain the backbone of the operational force. Nothing must be allowed to compromise its support. As ballistic missiles in turn assume a more dominant role in the forces in-being, supported by the systems now being designed, planning attention will turn to the design of support systems for the still newer weapons which at that time will lie just ahead.

The Logistic System of the Future

As S WE shift our sights from the immediate future and attempt to look farther ahead, the picture necessarily becomes somewhat less distinct. Many of the details must remain obscure, but the main outlines can be perceived with some degree of accuracy. True spacecraft, both manned and unmanned, will have entered the inventory and operational forces will be able to function throughout all significant levels and regions of the aerospace. We turn now to the nature of the logistic system that must support these forces. What will the logistics "bridge" of the future be like?

The close Air Force-industry logistical relationship is indicated by these charts on weapon system maintenance. Chart "a" shows the approximate division of maintenance responsibilities between the Air Force and contractors during five stages in the life of a weapon system. Chart "b" shows the percentage of maintenance manhours in house and by contract for a number of weapon systems from 1958 to 1965.

Many of the trends that will shape the future logistic system are already at work. The increasing importance of logistics as a primary factor influencing the basic design of weapon systems is an excellent example of a trend that is likely to grow. In the Minuteman weapon system the tremendous cost and complexity of the ground checkout and launch complex of earlier systems composed the logistic problem which the design engineers were attempting to solve. The goal was to develop a missile that could be easily launched and that would function correctly for a flight of approximately one half hour.

Contrast this with flight times of weeks, months, or even years for space systems now on the horizon. Tremendous additional improvements in reliability must be achieved before flights such as these will become feasible. The cost of unreliability, both in human lives and in the failure of the mission, will justify almost any actions taken to achieve these higher reliability levels.

But perfection can never be obtained; some maintenance will always be required. In many cases it will be either impossible or uneconomical to return the vehicle to its home station for maintenance, and the malfunction will have to be corrected in flight. It is obvious, therefore, that the logistic considerations of reliability and ease of in-flight maintenance will play a far more dominant role in the design of space vehicles than they have in past weapon systems.

Other problems will be relatively new. The movement of supplies, for instance, will involve problems of transportation never faced before. In the past, commercial transportation systems were available which logistics could utilize or duplicate. Such will not be the case in space logistics. The logistic transport will have to be developed, as will also the design of whatever spacelogistics supply sites will be required. Tremendous ground complexes, dwarfing the present one at Cape Canaveral, will be required to launch both oper ational and logistic vehicles. Some may be geographically located so as to achieve equatorial orbits more easily; others may have to be at sea to facilitate the recovery and re-use of the mammoth first-stage boosters now on the drawing boards.

As in the past, improvements in logistic tools and techniques will be a prime factor in meeting these support requirements. Many of these improvements already are under way. A completely integrated transportation and materials-handling system, embracing not only the transport function but the loading and warehousing functions as well, is now under development. The purpose is to minimize the packaging and handling now associated with the storage and movement of materiel by designing a single, integrated system rather than utilizing separate systems for warehousing, handling, and transportation as in the past. The techniques that result from this total-systems approach to the physical aspects of supply and transportation should provide the framework for an extension of the same technique of analysis to space-logistics supply and transportation problems. We also are taking advantage of the latest research in solid-state physics to improve communications reliability and stability so that the logistic command-and-control net

work will be as effective as those of the operational forces it supports. Our data-processing equipments and techniques also are being continually improved, and these improvements make new techniques of management available to us.

But perhaps the most important improvement concerns not a physical tool but a management technique-the technique of control. The logistic system as a whole is so large, is made up of so many individual support systems, and has so many intricate interrelationships that effective control is extremely difficult. But each new weapon-support system we design is more clearly defined than those that came before. Systems analysis and electronic data processing are enabling us to identify and keep track of essential relationships within and between support systems, relationships which in many cases existed informally if at all. As we study these systems more closely, especially in the process of applying electronic data processing to them, we discover numerous cases where essential information was being obtained through informal personal relationships rather than through the formal information channels. Unless these informal relationships are identified and formalized when the formal channels are mechanized, the system cannot operate effectively. Accurate systems analysis is enabling us to do this.

The first systems that have been thoroughly defined and brought under this new management control are those directly supporting the vital weapon systems of our strategic strike force. But this type of system analysis is not limited to individual weapon-support systems. It is equally applicable to commodity or item-oriented systems and to the many other individual systems that make up the totality of logistic support. As each one of these systems is brought under this new type of analysis and control, we draw closer to our goal of a completely integrated and thoroughly responsive total logistic system.

Increased responsiveness and control are essential because the logistics management job is constantly expanding in complexity and in scope. The requirements of modern weapons are such that they depend upon many dif ferent organizations and activities for their support. Although logistics is a military function, its roots extend deep into the industrial segment of the economy. Regardless of who provides it, the essence of effective logistic support is responsiveness to the needs of the operating commands. The entire logistic structure, its industrial as well as its military components, must meet this requirement. Effective systems analysis and design can enable it to do so by integrating each vital logistic function-whether performed by the operating command, the logistic command, or the industrial contractor-into the total logistic system at the appropriate time and place, thus making the entire system responsive to the military logistics commander.

Ar the beginning of this analysis the logistic system was described as the bridge between the economy and military operations. We have seen how the nature of this bridge changes through the years. The bridge of the past was made up of vast stores of supplies and equipment obtained from the economy