Indo-Pacific operations depend on strong logistics and sustainment at the edge

Secure and efficient logistics and supply chain management are critical to operational success in the Indo-Pacific region, where the scale and scope of the environment bring unique complexities. The Department of War (DoW) highlights partnerships with allies in the Indo-Pacific region as critical to “upholding a free and open region founded on respect for international rules, laws and norms.” But supporting those relationships and achieving decision advantage in such a vast area require an advanced approach and cutting-edge technologies.      

“We call it the tyranny of distance — the Pacific is simply huge,” said Col. Todd Burroughs, deputy commanding officer for support for 7th Infantry Division Multi-Domain Command, Pacific. “When you take that and you combine it with a threat whose focus is anti-access and area denial … that’s really what we’re looking at when we look at contested logistics in the Indo-Pacific.”

In such a vast and unpredictable environment, logistics are the linchpin and can be the deciding factor between mission success and failure. In a recent episode of GovExec TV, recorded on location at the 2026 Pacific Operational Science and Technology Conference, Burroughs joined Joe McMahon, Senior Director of Defense Mission Software at General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) to discuss the evolution of logistics and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. Here are the top takeaways from their conversation:

1. Sustainment at the edge relies on details and fail safes.

In today’s contested environment, disruptions can come from many different angles in both the physical and virtual worlds. Warfighters in the Indo-Pacific region face cyber threats, physical attacks and the inherent difficulty of movement across vast distances. “Logistics either facilitates or constrains operational timing and tempo,” Burroughs said.

The key to preparing for any threat: keeping alternative options open and available. In the face of disruption, having multiple routes, multiple suppliers, multiple of any node of the sustainment infrastructure is paramount. If one is compromised, alternatives maximize adaptability and quick recovery.

Moreover, “when you plan logistics, you have to plan from the strategic, all the way through the operational, all the way down to how long it takes a soldier to fill his canteen with water,” Burroughs said, underscoring the importance of accounting for every last detail.

Though logistics provide support to critical functions like intelligence and operations at the edge, it should also be treated as an equally important mission pillar alongside them. “We need to treat logistics as a co-partner in mission planning,” said McMahon.

2. Logistics management is shifting closer to the action.

Bringing logistics management closer to the edge, or enhancing the forward defense industrial base, is a core strategy for improving contested logistics. A more robust forward defense industrial base (DIB) ensures the Indo-Pacific region has strong DIB presence and capabilities close by, rather than having to rely too heavily on CONUS DIB innovation and manufacturing on the other side of the world.

Burroughs described it as “additive manufacturing,” noting that “anything we can do to help manufacture forward just makes us more resilient and makes the sustainment system, sustainment at the edge, more resilient.”

This strategy is essentially an extension of the traditional spoke-and-wheel model, emblematic of Indo-Pacific defense strategy for decades, with the U.S. as the central hub and various allies as the spokes.

“As we’re operating more dispersed, … which we have to do in this environment, distribution becomes more difficult,” Burroughs said. Bringing manufacturing and other logistically essential capabilities closer to the edge results in additional hubs and “multiple spokes and wheels being able to determine who needs what, when they need it, where they need it.”  

Technology, Burroughs said, further expands this model to enable greater efficiency in the region and unify U.S. forces with crucial support.

3. Allies and industry are critical partners.

“We don’t do anything by ourselves anymore,” Burroughs said. “We’re not dependent but we stand side-by-side with our allies and partners, whether it’s access and overflight, whether it’s providing vendors to get some of these bulk supplies — fuel, water — or whether it’s helping with distribution or security.”

These partnerships only further underscore the importance of open standards and interoperability. Particularly from a technology perspective, interoperability is the key to performing as a cohesive unit rather than numerous separate entities, as is the establishment of manufacturing and sustainment hubs at the edge in the Indo-Pacific region.

“Operating in a deny, deter, disrupt kind of environment will require us to work in pockets of local authority, or local decision-making, and local sustainment as well,” McMahon said. “We need to get comfortable in doing that, but in a way that feeds information back … data that will help enrich and provide after-action reports, lessons learned and continuous improvement.”

Altogether, when open standards, robust partnerships and interoperability are combined with enhanced edge capabilities, the result is a strong, distributed DIB with a resilient supply chain capable of supporting advanced deterrence and defense missions in the Indo-Pacific region.

4. Emerging technologies and open standards are shaping modern logistics.

A number of new technologies are poised to change logistics and supply chain management in the region and advance relationships with allies and partners. Innovation related to space-based mesh networks, for example, is creating robust, pervasive networks all over the globe that support communication even in decentralized and disconnected environments.

Autonomous systems are able to serve as a force multiplier across all units and functions, and are “a real game changer,” McMahon said, as AI/ML capabilities advance quickly. “We back up a year from now, and we’re looking at AI that is light years different from what we have today.”

In recent years, defense leaders have also emphasized the importance of adopting open standards in military systems and development. With so many different partners involved, from allied nations to private industry, open standards reduce friction, enabling more efficient collaboration. 

“It’s been a discussion point on the software side of things,” McMahon said, “but how do we do it with regards to things that we manufacture, such that if I need multiple providers, they’re all building that part the same way so that they’re interchangeable?”

Together, emerging technologies and open standards support a unified approach to contested logistics in the Indo-Pacific region that will pave the way to greater speed in manufacturing and delivery, seamless communication and decision advantage over adversaries.

“From the technology side, we're always [working] to gain interoperability with our systems and our allies and partners,” Burroughs said, “so that we can truly be one cohesive unit and better together than we are as multiple separate entities.”

Learn more about how GDIT is supporting logistics and operations in the complex Indo-Pacific region.