ensuring effective management of the LCL civilian warfighting acquisi - tion workforce. The LCL community invests in sustainment technology not just in our weapon systems but also in our support systems. Addi - tive manufacturing, digital twins, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence-driven maintenance are transforming how the DoN designs, builds, and sustains. This enterprise- wide community spreads across the leadership, action officer, and work - ing levels for consistent messaging, alignment of goals, shared owner - ship, and accountability. The LCL Career Guidebook , the Sustainment Performance Guide , and the memorandum laid the ground -
work for former DASN-S Erica Plath’s top LCL priorities in 2025. In Septem - ber 2025, she hosted the inaugural, semiannual Life Cycle Logistics Com - munity Gathering of more than 700 attendees at in-person and multiple satellite locations, including program executive offices, SYSCOMs, and War - fare Centers across the nation. The DASN-S team is passionate about building our community and continuously working to bring logis - tics, sustainment, and product sup - port to life. Within the PSM Guide- book , IPS Elements Guidebook , and the LCL Career Guidebook , the terms workforce, people, logisticians, and teams are used more than 170 times. Assembling the LCL event made those
terms a reality by connecting and uni - fying the LCL warfighting acquisition workforce as a community. To deliver effective and afford - able product support in a contested logistics environment and meet the challenging requirements to support the Navy and Marine Corps Warfight - ers, the LCL warfighting acquisition workforce needs training, tools, and a deliberate talent management pro - cess to ensure they have these critical skills. The DoN cannot afford to just repeat the words, “Our people are our most important asset.” Action must be taken to demonstrate that we re - cruit, train, advance, and retain our workforce while paying due attention to their well-being. COSGROVE is the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Sustainment. He is the former director of Product Support Management in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Devel- opment and Acquisition. His career tenure within the Department of the Navy includes over 27 years of experience in acquisition and sustainment Life Cycle Logistics. Cos- grove holds a B.A. in Political Science and His- tory from Lycoming College and an MBA from La Salle University. The author can be contacted at matthew.p.cosgrove2.civ@us.navy.mil . The views expressed in this article are those of the author 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
– Life Cycle Logistics (Online Training Course) – Integrated Product Support Guidebook Suite – (LOG 0460) The Twelve Integrated Product Support Elements (Online Training Course)
U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Talon Antolak, an antitank missile gunner with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, stops a joint light tactical vehicle on the U.S. Navy landing craft mechanized 13, during Technology Operational
Experimentation Exercise (TOEE) 2022 at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Source: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Meshaq Hylton
MAY – JUNE 2026 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE 13
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