Life-Cycle Management - Army Logistics University - U.S. Army

‘Lily-Pad’ ‘Lily-Pad’ Basing Basing Concept Concept
Put to the Test Test
BY CAPTAIN DAVID C. CHANDLER, JR.
As the Army transforms to an expeditionary force,
a new concept called “lily-pad” basing is being
developed for basing troops overseas. Under this
concept, the United States would not have permanent,
large-scale military installations in another country.
Instead of building its own bases as it has in the past, the
Army would use other countries’ existing facilities. It
would have only a skeletal staff and an agreement with
the host country that the base could be used as a forward
operating base in a time of crisis. These “lily-pad”
bases would be austere training and deployment sites
often in areas not previously used for U.S. bases.
Can the Army’s new method of expeditionary operations
be supported using the “lily-pad” basing concept?
Soldiers of the 21st Theater Support Command (TSC)
in Kaiserslautern, Germany, sought to answer that
question. Their task was to deploy several hundred soldiers
from Illinois to an austere location in Eastern
Europe; provide those soldiers with food, fuel, and supplies;
and allow them to train in preparation for a
notional follow-on deployment to a combat or peacekeeping
theater of operations. The operation took place
in the Novo Selo Training Area in central Bulgaria in
July and August 2004. About 1,300 soldiers, contractors,
and host nation workers participated.
The objectives of the exercise were to—
• Test expeditionary force operations by moving
troops from the continental United States and U.S.
bases in Europe to an austere location and enabling
them to conduct quality training.
• Build international relations with Bulgaria.
• Test the Bulgarian infrastructure’s potential for
supporting future operations involving U.S. forces.
Novo Selo Training Area
U.S. Army Europe’s 18th Engineer Brigade served
as the higher control for the exercise. Units from the
21st TSC formed Task Force Log and served as the
core for the logistics support mission under the command
and control of the 37th Transportation Command
from Kaiserslautern, Germany. The 212th
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital from Miesau, Germany,
and the 236th Medical Company (Air Ambulance)
from Landstuhl, Germany, provided medical
support. The training unit was the 2–130 Infantry Battalion,
an Illinois Army National Guard unit.
Local Bulgarian contractors—coordinated by
Halliburton Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) and the U.S.
Joint Contracting Command (JCC)—established the life
support area at Novo Selo (shown above), consisting of
facility tents (chapel; Army and Air Force Exchange
Service; dining; and morale, welfare and recreation),
sleep tents, and containerized headquarters buildings.
KBR also provided services such as operation of the
dining facility and upkeep of the life support area.
The Bulgarian economy supplied many products and
services for the exercise. One exercise goal was to maximize
host nation support and build relations with the
Bulgarian Ministry of Defense (BMOD) using a statement
of requirements and a North Atlantic Treaty Organization
standardization agreement. However, the
BMOD had only a few existing civil contracts and could
not reliably establish new ones in time, so its contractual
support was limited to the provision of bulk fuel, force
protection augmentation, military vehicle support, and
military liaison officers. The rest of the contracts were
established by JCC or KBR. JCC contracted for laundry,
ARMY LOGISTICIAN PROFESSIONAL BULLETIN OF UNITED STATES ARMY LOGISTICS 11