By Paul R Salmon FCILT FSCM FCMI
Published for the Supply Chain Council
Introduction
In the world of defence and commercial logistics alike, few forces are more powerful than hindsight. Time and again, global events have stress-tested our supply chains—sometimes to breaking point. Each disruption leaves behind a trail of lessons: in resilience, agility, transparency, and design. From world wars to pandemics, from technological revolutions to regional conflicts, supply chain history is peppered with wake-up calls.
This article explores the key moments that have fundamentally reshaped how we think about supply chains, particularly in defence, and what those inflection points still teach us today.
1. The Berlin Airlift (1948–1949): Resilience in the Face of a Blockade
What Happened:
In one of the earliest Cold War confrontations, the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin, cutting off all road, rail, and canal routes into the city. With over 2 million residents facing starvation, the Allies responded not with ground force—but with logistics.
Over 11 months, the US and UK flew more than 277,000 flights, delivering 2.3 million tons of supplies. At its peak, one plane landed every 30 seconds.
What We Learned:
Air logistics can substitute for land—if scaled with precision. Redundancy matters: alternative routes and modes aren’t luxuries; they’re necessities in contested environments. Operational tempo is everything: success relied on ruthless efficiency, standardisation of load types, and rapid unloading.
Lasting Legacy:
The Berlin Airlift proved that supply chains could serve as strategic weapons—offering a powerful alternative to kinetic warfare.
2. Vietnam War (1955–1975): Over-Supply and the Inventory Trap
What Happened:
In Vietnam, the US military deployed a massive logistics machine, pouring in materiel at unprecedented levels. However, poor visibility, jungle terrain, and a lack of forecasting led to huge amounts of redundant or unserviceable stock piling up across the region.
What We Learned:
More isn’t better: overstocking without intelligence leads to waste, not readiness. Environmental context matters: logistics strategies must reflect terrain, climate, and conflict intensity. Logistics informatics must keep pace: data collection and decision support tools lagged far behind the operational footprint.
Lasting Legacy:
Vietnam drove home the importance of supply chain governance, asset visibility, and logistics tailored to the realities on the ground—not assumptions at headquarters.
3. Operation Desert Storm (1990–1991): The Warehouse in the Sand
What Happened:
The First Gulf War saw US-led coalition forces deploy to the Middle East with overwhelming force—and an overwhelming amount of equipment. Supplies flowed into Saudi Arabia faster than they could be catalogued or issued. In many cases, the exact location of critical inventory was unknown.
What We Learned:
“Just-in-case” supply chains lead to chaos without integration. Interoperability issues across coalition forces created friction in supply chain processes. Inventory visibility is critical in expeditionary environments.
Lasting Legacy:
The Gulf War catalysed a revolution in logistics automation. It led to the adoption of ERP systems, barcoding, and eventually RFID in military supply chains. Logistics was now seen as an operational enabler—not just a background process.
4. 9/11 and the Rise of Contractor Logistics Support (CLS)
What Happened:
Post-9/11 campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan created a new kind of operational demand: prolonged, asymmetric warfare with dispersed bases and evolving mission profiles. Defence ministries increasingly turned to industry partners to deliver sustainment “beyond the wire.”
What We Learned:
Industry can be a force multiplier—but only with clear contracts and oversight. Sustainment is now a blend of uniformed and civilian capabilities. Long tail logistics requires agility, scalability, and continuous risk monitoring.
Lasting Legacy:
CLS became a staple of defence logistics, prompting doctrines like “contractor on the battlefield” and new standards for Public-Private Partnerships in operational theatres.
5. The 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami: Fragility of Tier-N Supply Chains
What Happened:
The earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan also shattered its tightly wound, lean manufacturing supply chains. With Toyota and other giants relying on just-in-time delivery from hundreds of specialist suppliers—many located in the affected region—assembly lines around the world ground to a halt.
What We Learned:
Tier-N visibility is non-negotiable: knowing your direct suppliers isn’t enough. Lean can become brittle when resilience isn’t built in. Geographic concentration of suppliers introduces hidden systemic risk.
Lasting Legacy:
Global supply chains began investing in digital supplier mapping, multi-sourcing, and scenario-based contingency planning. In defence, it reignited debates about overreliance on global commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components.
6. The COVID-19 Pandemic (2020–2022): Global Fragility, Local Opportunity
What Happened:
COVID-19 upended every aspect of global logistics: factory shutdowns, empty ports, border delays, and a rush on critical PPE and medical supplies. Defence ministries were drawn into supply chain response—often stepping in to source, transport, and stockpile vital equipment.
What We Learned:
Supply chains are only as strong as their weakest node. Sovereignty in key sectors matters—including manufacturing and logistics. Stockpile strategies must evolve from static to dynamic, based on risk and demand.
Lasting Legacy:
COVID became the global forcing function for resilience strategies. Defence organisations revisited national stockpile levels, localised sourcing, and logistics self-sufficiency in contested scenarios.
7. Suez Canal Blockage (2021): When One Ship Stopped the World
What Happened:
When the Ever Given container ship became lodged in the Suez Canal, it delayed nearly $10 billion worth of goods per day. The knock-on effects lasted months, cascading across global logistics schedules and inventory availability.
What We Learned:
Chokepoints are vulnerability multipliers. Global supply chains require better time buffers and route diversity. Real-time data is vital—not just for navigation, but for inventory planning and communications.
Lasting Legacy:
The defence community, heavily reliant on sea lines of communication (SLOCs), began re-examining redundancy, charter contracts, and forward storage to mitigate shipping disruption.
8. Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine (2022–Present): The Ammunition Wake-Up Call
What Happened:
The Ukraine conflict has triggered a high-intensity, artillery-heavy war of attrition not seen in decades. Western nations have scrambled to keep pace with Ukrainian demand for shells, drones, and vehicles. Defence industries have found their production lines ill-equipped for surge output.
What We Learned:
Readiness isn’t just about troops—it’s about manufacturing capacity. Stockpile levels must reflect worst-case, not average-case, scenarios. Public-private coordination needs to be warfighting ready.
Lasting Legacy:
Ammunition production has become a strategic issue. NATO countries are now investing in munitions plants, shared procurement, and defence industrial base resilience. It’s no longer just about owning equipment—it’s about sustaining it.
9. Semiconductor Crisis (2020–2023): Obsolescence Hits Home
What Happened:
Triggered by COVID, amplified by rising demand, and made worse by geopolitical tensions, the semiconductor shortage left entire industries paralysed. Defence systems—from radios to guided missiles—felt the squeeze.
What We Learned:
Obsolescence management must be continuous—not reactive. Critical component sovereignty is a defence imperative. COTS reliance must be offset with better lifetime assurance.
Lasting Legacy:
Defence ministries have begun mapping semiconductor dependencies, prioritising alternative parts approval processes, and exploring sovereign chip capabilities for mission-critical systems.
10. The Digital Transformation Era (2020s–): Data as a Strategic Asset
What’s Happening:
From predictive analytics to AI-enhanced forecasting, the digitisation of supply chains is now reshaping every decision. Defence is slowly catching up—building tools, datasets, and governance structures to enable data-driven sustainment.
What We’re Learning:
Without clean data, digital tools are just expensive guesses. Human judgment + machine assistance = optimal decision-making. Digital twin models, if calibrated, offer game-changing logistics planning.
Emerging Legacy:
Defence supply chains are now treating data as a weapon system in its own right. We are entering an age where scenario modelling, wargaming logistics, and AI-informed stockpiling will become as normal as physical warehousing.
Conclusion: From Reaction to Resilience
History has not been kind to fragile supply chains. But it has been generous in its lessons.
From Berlin to Baghdad, from pandemics to precision manufacturing, each shock has refined the way we think about logistics. Defence in particular has learned—sometimes the hard way—that the supply chain is not a backdrop to operations. It is the enabler, the limiter, and occasionally, the decider of success or failure.
The next disruption will come. It always does. Our job is not to predict it perfectly, but to prepare with purpose—to build supply chains that bend without breaking, adapt without delay, and learn without ego.
Because in defence logistics, resilience is not an end state. It’s a mindset.
About the Author
Paul R Salmon FCILT FSCM FCMI is the Chair of the CILT Defence Forum and Lead Data Steward for Support at DE&S. With a background spanning engineering, logistics, and analytics, he writes regularly on the intersection of supply chain resilience, data, and defence transformation.
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