ARTICLE

July 2004

Logistics Command Extends Reach of U.S. Seventh Fleet

by Roxana Tiron

Tucked away behind blocks of concrete at the Sembawang Terminal on Singapore’s northern tip is the small office of the Logistics Group, Western Pacific. It is the engine supporting the 7th Fleet—the Navy’s largest forward-deployed force.

The command, under the helm of Rear Adm. Kevin Quinn, provides everything from the re-supply of food to fuel and ordnance to repair parts for U.S. Navy ships deployed to the 7th Fleet area of operations. This area stretches from the mid-Pacific to the east coast of Africa, and from Russia’s Kuril Islands in the north to the Antarctic in the south.

The command also plans and manages the funding for ship repairs at U.S. facilities in Guam, as well as at commercial repair facilities in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia.

To be able to keep up with the operational tempo of the past couple of years, the command, or Comlog Westpac as it’s called, needs to stay flexible, Quinn told National Defense at his headquarters.

Quinn has a staff of 60 Navy personnel and five civilians. Last year alone, Quinn’s command supported 250 ship port visits. Busy times come in spurts, he said, depending on whether a battle group is in the area.

“When we are between battle groups, we still have sort of a recurring workload, as ships come through on their way to the Arabian Gulf or on their way back,” he said. Additionally, the ships that are forward- deployed in Japan often leave that country to participate in regional exercises, so they make several port visits.

Last year, Comlog transferred at sea about 83 million of gallons of fuel and about 41,000 pallets of cargo.

Even though Singapore is not the command’s largest fuel center, “we turn the inventory here more than any other fuel depot in the Pacific,” said Quinn. The fuel is stored several miles away from headquarters. It is pumped from huge storage tanks through a pipeline to the piers by the South China Sea.

“One of my oilers would pull up to this pier. We would hook up several hoses to it and fill it up with fuel just like you would fill up your car at a gas station,” he explained. The command has about four tankers throughout the Asian region.

Singapore has become a strategic location when it comes to fuel, according to Quinn. “There is great fuel capacity here, and the location is strategic, being at the mouth of the Malacca Straits,” he said. Singapore also has proven supportive of the U.S. presence in the area, he added.

Supplies come from a web of distribution centers, stretched throughout the region, said Quinn. “We need distribution centers in places like Singapore for fuel, in places like Guam for ammunition and supplies, and then a wide variety of locations to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables and milk,” he said.

Quinn said he is studying ways to make distribution more effective. “I would like to really look at all of the logistics requirements in the Western Pacific, and see if there is something we can do either in the type and number of logistics ships that we have, or in the processes that we use, to optimize the use of our logistics forces so that we can better support any contingency.”

The Navy faces the same difficulties as the Army and the Air Force when it comes to the visibility of in-transit parts, or tracking critical parts en-route, he said. “We can probably do a little bit better on that.”

Nevertheless, in comparison to the problems the Army encounters with its distribution and logistics in less developed regions, for example, operating on the ocean is a “little bit less complicated,” he said.

Quinn’s command, like the other Navy organizations, plugs into the sea service’s automated parts tracking system.

When it comes to ship repair, Comlog resorts to the U.S. Naval Regional Contracting Center. NRCC is responsible for coordinating ship repair contracting in over 15 countries, covering more than 50 ports.

NRCC was established as an independent command in January 1991, and in March 1992 moved to its current location in Singapore, with detachments in Hong Kong, Jakarta and Manila. NRCC is responsible for nearly $35 million in contracts annually. Including its detachments, NRCC has 105 civilians, 25 active-duty military personnel and 22 naval reservists.

NRCC has put in place an outsourcing system that allows it to have a high turnaround, said Cmdr. Chris Ray, the center’s executive officer.

Because ships receive extensive maintenance before they initially deploy, it is the so-called “voyage repairs” that need to be performed for the ship to continue its course, said Lt. Chuck Bell, Comlog’s spokesperson. Other than nuclear work, everything else can be done in Singapore.

Once Comlog engineers inspect the ships and put out a work statement, NRCC takes over and solicits bids from regional ship repair companies.

These companies already have been pre-inspected and selected by Comlog, ensuring that they meet military specifications. About 17 companies are spread across the region, from Singapore to Malaysia and Australia, said Ray.

NRCC tries to award a contract within two to three days from the time the problem has been identified, Ray told National Defense. “This is stuff that you can’t delay.” Much of it tends to be short-term emergency work, so it does not lend itself to a long acquisition process.

NRCC does not store spare parts, Ray said. “Generally, parts are Fedex-ed out here ... as the ship arrives and is being delivered to the contractor doing the work,” said Ray. “We do not have big warehouses. ... We kind of do a just-in-time type of repair,” to keep the size of the workforce as small as possible.

Using contractors allows NRCC to ramp up when necessary, Ray explained. That is what happened during the initial surge to send ships into the Persian Gulf for Operation Enduring Freedom, he said, as well as when they transited on their way back from the Gulf. The tempo has calmed since boiling over during OEF, but it is still busy, compared to five years ago, said Ray.

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