PRODUCT SUPPORT
international partners; and take ad - vantage of commonality and econo - mies of scale to reduce unnecessary redundancy and cost. This philoso - phy is reflected in the department’s Regional Sustainment Framework (RSF) initiative and aligns with the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Au - thorization Act, Section 842, Advanc - ing International Product Support in a Contested Logistics Environment. RSF was implemented to improve Warfighter outcomes and is intended to move support forward to improve readiness. It establishes partnerships with international allies to utilize re - gional capabilities, where capabili - ties and capacity exist, for common weapon systems. RSF and co-sus - tainment strategies are reshaping U.S. and allied military logistics to increase resilience and readiness. The military and economic benefits of RSF for the United States and our allies are just starting to be realized, and we can do much more to advance co-sustainment in contested logistics environments.
I mentioned aligning the Product Support community to Warfighter re - quirements. This means ensuring that everyone across the acquisition and sustainment ecosystem measures their success (or failure) by their im - pact on Warfighter readiness. Organi - zations too often in the past have had their own set of goals and associated metrics with no link to the impact on the Warfighter. Every action taken by the DoW “tail” in support of the “tip” must be value added to Warfighter success. If it is not, then it should be adjusted or eliminated. This starts at the very beginning of the weapon system’s life cycle with the PSM, in support of the PM, developing an effective performance- based life cycle Product Support Strategy (PSS) that will deliver an in - tegrated and affordable Product Sup - port solution designed to optimize system readiness for the Warfighter. The performance-based life cycle PSS will be the basis for all Prod - uct Support efforts and lead to a Product Support package to sustain
Warfighter requirements. Program - matically, all Product Support solu - tions should be performance-based. Product Support solutions should in - clude an appropriate mix of product and process metrics with threshold values to monitor performance that may be adjusted as needed to satisfy Warfighter requirements. How these metrics flow down to Product Sup - port integrators and providers will depend on their specific duties and inherent responsibilities. Regardless of the specifics of per - formance and associated metrics, it must be shown how those used throughout the supply chain flow to the top-level program metrics. Ar - rangements with government and commercial industry, whether per - formance-based or not, should be structured to specific program needs and evolve as needed throughout the life cycle. The key is to satisfy the Warfighter’s requirements, usually ex - pressed in terms of availability, and not focus only on the consumption of resources or who performs the work.
8 DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE | JANUARY FEBRUARY 2026 –
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