Surviving the Kill Web

Adapting Army Sustainment to the Precision Strike and Unmanned Threat Era

By CPT Stephanie Torres

Article published on: June 20th 2025, in the Army Sustainment Summer 2025 Edition

Read Time: < 7 mins

A sustainment formation moves cautiously through contested terrain. It is carrying fuel, ammunition, and essential supplies needed to sustain operational reach and seize the initiative. The column inches forward along an exposed dirt road, with vehicles staggered to minimize losses from potential indirect fire. The operators remain alert, but overhead an enemy drone observes silently, transmitting their exact coordinates to a distant fire control center. Without warning, precision-guided artillery strikes erupt across the formation, reducing fuelers and cargo trucks to rubble. As survivors attempt to reposition, loitering munitions descend, hunting for command vehicles and other logistics assets. Communications collapse and the convoy is destroyed in place. Its equipment and personnel losses are catastrophic, and its cargo remains undelivered.

This is not a fictional vignette or a future scenario. These tactics were witnessed in Bakhmut, Kherson, and Russia’s Kursk Oblast as recently as March 2025. Russian forces have repeatedly ambushed Ukrainian supply columns with coordinated drone surveillance and rapid sensor-to-shooter strikes, destroying logistics elements with lethal efficiency. Russian units have learned to wait patiently in concealed positions, exploiting the kill web to obliterate convoys before they reach the front lines. This is the reality of modern war: logistics formations are not only within reach; they are now deliberate, high-payoff targets.

The Russia-Ukraine War, along with other modern operations, has shown that sustainment formations are prime targets in an increasingly lethal battlespace. While maneuver formations have rapidly integrated counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) capabilities to defend against drone threats, sustainment forces remain highly vulnerable. As adversaries refine their ability to detect and strike logistics nodes with precision, sustainment operations must focus on survivability. In today’s environment, the need for sustainment forces to integrate dispersed logistics, reduce their footprint, and enhance mobility to remain effective in a contested environment grows at an alarming rate. By applying the same adaptability, survivability, and protection measures as maneuver units, coupled with lean and efficient supply chain models, sustainment formations can ensure the Army’s ability to fight and win in future conflicts.

Sustainment in the Crosshairs

Recent conflict has shown how quickly supply chain disruptions can cripple military operations. Adversaries have used this information to their advantage, integrating long-range precision fires, drone swarms, and persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to disrupt and destroy logistics formations before they can deliver combat power. The traditional model, built around centralized nodes, large stockpiles, and predictable resupply routes, is increasingly vulnerable. Future opponents are expected to sever sustainment lines to weaken U.S. forces’ combat effectiveness. To address this, Army sustainment must shift to a mobile, dispersed, and survivable framework. Unmanned systems pose a persistent threat to logistics nodes, further reinforcing the need for agility, concealment, and active defense. Sustainment operations, force design, and doctrine must now evolve to remain effective in contested environments.

Decentralize & Disperse: Discard the Large Sustainment Nodes

First, we must consider a critical truth: in today’s fight, traditional enemy bypass criteria are decreasingly a matter of command discretion. In the modern battlefield, rear-area formations are vulnerable to threats that can penetrate most physical security measures and strike deep with precision. Large, immobile sustainment nodes are easily identified and targeted, making them obsolete in future wars. To survive and function in this environment, the Army must adopt a decentralized sustainment model built around dispersed, mobile, and frequently shifting micro-nodes. These smaller logistics elements reduce detectability, increase agility, and minimize reliance on manned convoys. Transitioning to this model starts with learning from nations that have long operated without air superiority and have developed sustainment practices rooted in concealment and mobility.

Ukrainian logistics forces, under persistent threat from Russian ISR and long-range fires, have adopted small, mobile resupply points instead of centralized depots. They frequently relocate fuel and ammunition, often blending operations into civilian infrastructure like warehouses and trucks. Finland, shaped by its proximity to Russia, uses decentralized logistics supported by heavy concealment and deception to shield tactical nodes from detection. Similarly, Taiwan’s dispersed logistics strategy leverages civilian and military infrastructure to sustain operations under the threat of blockade or air attack. These examples highlight an important principle: survivable sustainment relies not only on dispersion but on masking in plain sight. The goal is not just to move faster, but to become harder to find.

Leaner Footprints: Less is More

Large supply stockpiles and centralized depots create visible targets for enemy ISR and precision fires while reducing mobility. On a battlefield dominated by loitering munitions and artificial intelligence driven targeting, static logistics nodes give adversaries easy opportunities to disrupt operations before they begin. To reduce this vulnerability, Army sustainment formations must adopt lean logistics focused on speed, mobility, and signature reduction. This starts with maintaining only mission-critical supplies forward while continuously identifying and removing excess materials through routine retrograde.

Retrograde must become a synchronized, daily function, not just a task at mission completion. Every distribution cycle must include a plan for pulling unused or low-priority items from forward positions to

Soldiers from 2-130th Infantry Regiment hone their skills in counter unmanned aircraft systems training at McGregor Range, New Mexico. (Photo by SSG Raquel Birk)

higher echelons. For instance, Class I rations from altered meal plans, excess Class IV construction materials, or low-demand maintenance parts must be routinely retrograded using returning convoys. This not only prevents logistical buildup but also improves movement speed, reduces transportation strain, and allows rapid node displacement when needed.

Additionally, just-in-time (JIT) logistics complements this approach by allowing sustainment units to meet operational needs without overcommitting resources forward. JIT logistics minimizes inventory and enables responsive, targeted resupply operations. However, to function effectively, JIT requires robust forecasting and communication across echelons.

Predictive analytics and demand forecasting tools — when integrated into mission command systems — help sustainment planners identify the most frequently requested parts, anticipate shortages, and avoid overstocking low-demand items.

Reducing the sustainment footprint enhances agility and survivability. In today’s contested environment, logistics that stay light and mobile are far more likely to endure and deliver. Moreover, sustainment nodes must reduce their electromagnetic and physical signatures to survive in an environment saturated with sensors. This means minimizing radio transmissions, employing camouflage and decoys, limiting tentage, and using low-signature platforms to deliver and store supplies. By addressing both visibility and detectability, sustainment units become far harder to strike.

Train Sustainment Survivability: Defend, Displace, Conceal, Repeat

Sustainment formations must adopt a survivability mindset, treating themselves not as rear-area support but as forward-operating forces constantly under threat. Unlike past conflicts, logistics nodes can no longer assume they will operate in secure rear zones. Army sustainment must integrate defensive capabilities, deception, and mobility into their doctrine. Additionally, units must incorporate both active and passive defensive measures to mitigate drone threats. Embedded C-UAS assets within sustainment formations will be critical for defending logistics elements against drone and missile attacks. To ensure survivability, these units must be equipped and trained in the same protection systems afforded to maneuver formations. These capabilities must be embedded into resupply movements and sustainment-node defenses to proactively counter aerial threats.

Controlling electromagnetic emissions is essential to survivability. Beyond traditional radio discipline, sustainment formations must enhance spectrum awareness and apply deliberate emission control measures to avoid detection. Additionally, the future battlefield demands a shift to mobile sustainment platforms that remain loaded and displace rapidly, rather than relying on tentage, static infrastructure, or downloaded supply points. Soldiers must be trained in deception techniques, terrain masking, and countermeasures to evade and disrupt enemy ISR systems.

The Path Forward

Sustainment doctrine must evolve to treat logistics as a combat enabler, not a passive support function. This shift demands a new operational mindset where logistics formations move, survive, and deliver in contested environments. Sustainment must transition from static hubs to dispersed, mobile networks that are autonomous and operate independently. Brigade support areas must no longer exist as singular, centralized nodes but as collections of mobile sustainment teams (MSTs) that displace frequently, adapt quickly, and align with maneuver formations. Logistics packages (LOGPACs) must become dynamic, responsive to shifting unit locations, and timed with windows of reduced threat based on ISR and operational tempo. Unit survivability in this model relies on speed, concealment, and constant movement.

Central to this transformation is the institutionalization of an embedded retrograde battle rhythm. Every LOGPAC, convoy, and resupply operation must incorporate retrograde of excess or unused supplies to reduce footprint and maintain agility. Lean logistics, underpinned by JIT principles and predictive analytics, must become standard. By using operational data and forecasting tools, sustainment planners anticipate demand, minimize excess, and ensure that only mission-critical supplies move forward. This enables smaller supply nodes, faster displacement, and lower electromagnetic and physical signatures. Sustainment units must also maintain rapid displacement readiness and rehearse standard operating procedures for movement, including terrain masking, deception measures, and integration with maneuver and protection forces.

To operationalize the way forward, Army leaders must begin incorporating mobile sustainment principles into doctrine, training, and force design. We must test MST employment, mobile node configurations, and embedded C-UAS capabilities in real-world conditions. Combat training centers must expose sustainers to contested logistics environments, complete with persistent drone surveillance, precision fires, and denied communications. Acquisition priorities must shift toward scalable platforms and low signature support systems that replace traditional infrastructure. Above all, commanders must ask themselves hard questions: Can our formations displace under threat? Are we retrograding supplies daily? Do we train to sustain under fire?

These tactics are no longer theoretical. Current conflict has demonstrated the enemy’s commitment to hunt and destroy logistics formations. Convoys will not be spared, and static nodes will not be overlooked. In the next war, sustainment forces will find themselves inside the kill web. The formations that survive will be those that move rapidly, stay hidden, and sustain while under fire. Is your formation ready?