at base and won’t be able to go out and protect the War- fighter and advance our cause. It won’t be there. So again, foreign military sales are terrific, and we’re working with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) to ensure that sustainment is considered more so than ever before in the creation process. Well, you know, a lot of our listeners probably have read Clausewitz, who wrote a lot about logistics. Now, the terminology may be slightly different just because of time and different languages. But it’s important to realize that Clausewitz took a lot of his inspiration in writing on war from his experience during the Napoleonic Wars. And Napoleon left for Moscow without enough wagons. He did not have the ability to sustain forward and, again, we are learning this lesson. The peace dividend, the idea that we consolidated our sustainment apparatus after the Cold War, was the right decision for that time that made sense. Now what makes sense is sustainment forward. We have an era where we have allies who can invest. We also have potential adversaries that could contest our logistics, could test our ability to get what we need forward to sup- port the Warfighters. That’s why we need RSF. We need that ability to sustain forward. Q RSF has a whole-of-government aspect. What other departments or agencies are critical to implementing RSF objectives, and how are things going with that? A. Absolutely. Often they’ll teach in war college, for in- stance, diplomatic, information or intelligence, military and
economic—DIME—and RSF pretty much uses every aspect of the DIME. So we have to partner with our interagency partners, like the Department of State, Department of Commerce, even the Intelligence Community. We’re part- nering with all of them to make sure that whatever we put in place is coordinated and for the maximum benefit in terms of efficiency, but again, readiness and lethality for- ward for the Warfighter. We want to be able to regenerate it, especially in a time of conflict. Q In addition to the recently published Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul [ MRO ] Playbook , what tools is your office working on to assist with the implementation? We understand that these might include memorandum of understanding templates or process map and other guid- ance. Is RSF being worked into DoD Instruction 5000.91 explicitly? A. Absolutely. And you know, we’re so lucky to be part of such a great office and Product Support under Deputy Assistant Secretary Smith’s leadership. And that office really gave us a running start with the MRO Playbook that can be found on the DAU website. And that is a great asset for international partners, industrial partners, to try to see how we do this. What is a good way to go for it? We’re working together to come up with a sequel to that, an RSF guidebook. And a guidebook is a more formal issuance through Washington Headquarters Services, and it will be more robust. We’re also working with the data folks in the depart- ment to try to figure out ways to synthesize the data from
Joseph Brooks (left) explains current RSF developments to Defense Acquisition magazine’s managing editor Benjamin Tyree. Source: Photo by Christopher Kaufmann, Army Multimedia and Visual Information Division
May-June 2025 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION | 9
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