PRODUCT SUPPORT
The Path Forward The revision of DoDI 3110.05 is the moment to institutionalize this shift. Ao and Am should remain as “quick look” indicators, but MR must be added as a diagnostic tool. Reporting requirements should mandate MTBM, MTTR, and MLDT across inventories, with each weapon system mapped into a six domain health framework. ROHLER is director of System and Equipment Availability and Readiness within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Sustain- ment.He is also a logistics colonel in the Vir- ginia Army National Guard. Rohler holds a B.A. in Business Management, an MBA, and an M.A. in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College. LIM is the military deputy to the Deputy Assis- tant Secretary of War for Materiel Readiness at the Pentagon. He oversees sustainment policy and the DoW’s $90 billion maintenance program. Lim is a Joint Qualified Officer and holds an M.P.A. from the University of Okla- homa and an M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College.
a system is, but how resilient it will be when stressed. Operationalizing Data Collecting MR data is only the first step. Its real value comes when it is normalized across platforms, tracked over time, and correlated with op - erational events. Patterns emerge— some pointing to chronic reliability issues, others to bottlenecks in repair or logistics. Predictive analytics can then flag emerging risks before they become mission-impacting failures. This approach shifts sustainment from reactive repair to proactive management. Instead of waiting for availability to drop, commanders and program managers can intervene early, targeting investments where they will have the greatest impact on resilience. Imagine seeing months in advance that a subsystem’s MTBM is trending downward while MLDT is creeping upward. That combination signals both increasing failure frequency and slower recovery—a recipe for readi - ness erosion. With MR in place, such trends would trigger alerts, prompt - ing investigation and corrective ac - tion before operational capability is compromised. Aligning With Statutory Requirements and JCIDS Reform The push to incorporate MR into DoDI 3110.05 is not just an internal best practice initiative; it is anchored in law and policy. Under 10 U.S.C. § 118, the DoW must report on materiel reliability. Current availability metrics such as Ao and Am do not fully satisfy this requirement because they mea - sure status without diagnosing the underlying causes of downtime. MR, by contrast, directly addresses reli - ability, maintainability, and logistics delay, providing a statutorily compli - ant measure that is both diagnostic and actionable. Timing is equally important. JCIDS is undergoing reform to streamline
requirements, accelerate acquisi - tion timelines, and focus on deliv - ering capabilities that are both op - erationally relevant and sustainable over the long term. One of the core themes of JCIDS reform is capabil - ity in context—understanding not just whether a system can perform its mission today, but whether it can continue to perform under sustained operational stress, evolving threats, and constrained resources. MR fits squarely within this vision. By embedding MR into sustainment policy, the DoW can ensure that ca - pability development is informed by a realistic picture of life-cycle perfor - mance. Acquisition decisions will be based not only on initial operational capability but also on the system’s ability to remain mission-capable over years of deployment. JCIDS reform also emphasizes de - cision quality data, metrics that can be traced to root causes, compared across platforms, and used to priori - tize investments. MR delivers exactly that. It transforms sustainment re - porting from a compliance exercise into a decision support tool, enabling leaders to identify systemic reliabil - ity issues early in the acquisition life cycle, target maintainability improve - ments where they will yield the great - est readiness gains, and strengthen logistics support structures before they become bottlenecks. Updating DoDI 3110.05 to include MR is therefore not just about meet - ing statutory requirements, it is about aligning sustainment policy with the broader transformation of defense acquisition. It ensures that the met - rics we collect serve both the letter of the law and the strategic intent of JCIDS reform: delivering capabili - ties that are resilient, adaptable, and ready for the fight ahead. MR also strengthens life-cycle risk management by revealing early indi - cators of sustainment fragility, ensur - ing acquisition decisions account for long-term resilience.
The authors can be contacted at dennis.m.rohler2.civ@mail.mil , and bj.lim.mil@mail.mil .
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors alone and not the Department of War. Reproduction or reposting of articles from Defense Acquisition magazine should credit the authors and the magazine.
Related Resources
– Sustainment Health Metrics Discussion with HON Christopher Lowman Media – DoD Supply Chain Metrics Guide Product Support Analytical Tool – Life Cycle Sustainment
Outcome Metrics Acquipedia Article
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