Logistics summit builds momentum for integrating global sustainment efforts across the Joint Force

Senior leaders and action officers from across the War Department gathered for a week-long decision-making conference to enhance alignment among their operational concepts and sustainment plans at the at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Headquarters March 23.

The 2026 Set the Theater/Set the Globe Summit provided distribution, sustainment and defense industry participants with an opportunity to collaborate and strengthen the nation's global logistics posture. The summit also served as a forum to take coordinated steps toward operationalizing Section 334 of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which directs specific DOW organizations to further support combatant commands operating in a contested environment.

DLA Director Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly opened the summit by emphasizing the importance of events like this to develop more-robust and more-informed planning frameworks.

"Our charge is to move from broad concepts to concrete, defensible, data-driven requirements that enable commanders to execute the mission with confidence," Simerly said.

Simerly also highlighted that combat operations occurring in any given theater are not limited to that region, often having a global impact. Ensuing effects to existing supply chains must be taken into account.

The summit builds on observations from previous military exercises, highlighting the need for increased resilience, agility and responsiveness across the Joint Logistics Enterprise. The week's discussions ensured the lessons learned were aligned with operational concepts, in addition to identifying resource gaps and mitigation efforts.

Representatives from the Joint Logistics Enterprise and the Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise assessed the underlying challenges that could impede warfighters' ability to deter aggression, fight and defeat threats around the world.

Simerly stressed that a unified effort is essential for success, especially when foreign adversaries actively design and deploy strategies aimed at disrupting America's military supply lines.

"No single organization can meet this mandate alone," Simerly said. "We must be integrated in our planning, data and timelines so our outputs converge and we execute with greater precision."

DLA's global network is fully integrated with America's allies and defense industry partners, ensuring the Joint Force can project and sustain decisive power anywhere in the world - at any time. Coordinated planning, resilience and speed underpin the Joint Logistics Enterprise's operational capacity so warfighters have what they need to win.

"Constantly monitoring potential threats that could disrupt global stability are at the forefront of our planning efforts," said Air Force Maj. Gen. David Sanford, director of DLA Logistics Operations. "Our logistical capabilities have advanced far beyond a support function; they are a direct and potent instrument of national will."

Sanford cast no doubt for those attending the summit that the strength of the Joint Logistics Enterprise serves as a deterrent with the clear and ever-present message: "We are ready, we are united and our reach is global."

Simerly concluded that if the Joint Logistics Enterprise can indeed set the theater and set the globe, then it will have helped set the conditions for victory.