Welcome to last week’s logistics news. I chose this image of an anti-drone vehicle headed to the battlefields of Ukraine is to remind all that the dance of competitive technology in war is eternal. Just as everyone clamors for the New Drone Wars, the defenses are advancing.
D+3
Last week saw the commemoration of D-Day. We will skip the Presidential faux pas asserting that contemporary Germans regret the day, and instead highlight the mechanism of the logistics of the operation. Because every increment of the assault, every mile advanced, each day progressed, increased the volume and variety demand upon the system. Steve Waddell is perhaps not wrong that the campaign’s logistics were over-planned and often conflicted with the reality that emerged as the battles unrolled across Western Europe. To their credit, however, the planners were conjuring support for a campaign the likes of which had never been attempted, relying upon new and exponentially more varied classes of supply in staggering amounts to sustain a new model of warfare and untold liberated populations, delivering 48 million tons for victory. And they did all of that from humble pre-war beginnings. To grasp the fullness of the Normandy and WWII logistics, take a gander at the works compiled by the Army’s historians discussed in this earlier piece:
How The Army Wrote WWII: The Green Books
Why should you care about this relatively obscure historical collection? In this moment of bureaucratic destruction and distrust of government work, the Army’s past efforts to memorialize its role within the American War is an homage to public service quality. And insofar as the war drove the creation and development of advanced federal operations, it o…
D+363 and 79 years
Parts of Cologne, Germany, were evacuated to manage the defusing and removal of three undetonated WWII Allied bombs found earlier in the week.
Ukraine War
The second anniversary of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in Ukraine. As an act in war, it approached the devastation caused by WMDs, a catastrophe for the local environment. Yet across the strategic analysis of the war, insufficient heed is given to the logistical requirements of making “civilian life” a priority. When the demands of meeting this disaster are properly considered, the pace and throughput of strictly military materiel makes more sense. And while I would argue that this a winning strategic ordering, it also demonstrates that significant slack to expand martial deliveries exists if there is ever a need for emergent delivery of excess arms.
Wages of the Life Strategy: Blue Light Casualties on the Home Front Lines:
Last I saw a video of the fibre optic wires from drones collecting upon the fields of Ukraine. This week, a photo from Azov Media shows a nest constructed with some of these fibres. I’m not sure this interference of our war birds upon local avian life is a good development. How those filaments will interact with hatchlings is not like the grasses and twigs and could become wrapping and knotting peril to hatchlings. Ukraine is in a difficult position, in an existential war and pushing technological frontiers - but future use of fibre optic drones needs careful consideration.
This video on the Spiderweb Attack goes through the various steps. It is a logistical masterpiece in conceptualization and implementation, and in the object and effect of the drones. And the problematization of trucking within Russia continued into the week, with miles of semis stopped for inspection around the country. It has been reported as well that the drone strikes on Russian strategic bombers deleted assets that would have been used in a bombing campaign against Ukraine on the eve of the Istanbul negotiations.
Continuing their relentless battle against the geostrategic link, Ukraine launched yet another attack on Kerch Bridge in Crimea on Tuesday. Although the blighted structure remains standing, the nearly ton of explosives managed to do structural damage to one of its supports. By the end of the week, the aviation fuel at Engels air base was burning.
And, even if by the numbers, Ukraine will appear in NATO member budgets as they work to appease the 5%ers on defense spending. For that, as throughout the war, Ukraine will continue to demonstrate impeccable diplomacy of gratitude to its partners for their assistance. Here, France is recognized for one of its F-16s.
Russian infrastructure continues its deteriorative spiral. A massive blackout was reported in Omsk region last Tuesday. Oil and gas revenues are down by a budget crushing 2.5 year low.
How can we gauge Russian casualties correctly? Claims to Russian courts for dead or missing persons declarations from Ukraine War service have averaged over 1,000 per week since the start of the year.
US Economy and Trade
Job cuts, plummeting trade deficits match the empty containers stacking up in California, reflecting the dramatic shifts in Asian trade, and while the “Summer of Empty Shelves” looms, as the impact of the economy is expected, the Brexit experience is useful to recall. In that case, what happened was not so much that shelves emptied, but that prices advanced and variety retreated. The consumer interface space is an advanced science. Empty shelves, the absence of abundance, is anathema, space is filled with the product that is available.
Agriculture
In House committee hearings last week:
DEAN: What's the tariff on bananas?
LUTNICK: Generally 10%
DEAN: Walmart has already increased the cost of bananas by 8%
LUTNICK: If you build in America, there is no tariff
DEAN: We cannot build bananas in America.
IPES-Food, “The New Geopolitics of Food” webinar discussion on what conflict, trade wars, aid cuts, & weak institutions mean for food systems, and how cooperative self-reliance can fight back - watch it online here.
Gutting the US Federal Government
Crisis response is under attack with “reforms” to operation that defy best practice and expert opinion, especially where national aid is the supplement to local need. First, back in April the White House authorized funds for Virginia without notifying FEMA, leading to confusion and delays of disbursement. Here, DHS public affairs defends its new “lean” approach to federal disaster support, despite the problem that crises eats local capacity.
Survival of public broadcasting is threatened in the budget, putting at risk not only popular programming but also the system of emergency alerts via this critical messaging infrastructure that serves rural Americans.
As critical public services are cut by DOGE and the Big Beautiful Bill, the consequences for the economy and communities are beginning to emerge. Here, Florida meteorologist John Morales warns his viewers that his ability to serve them in the coming hurricane season has been degraded by the cuts to the NWS and NOAA. And what will become of the National Parks in a budget that slashes the funding to levels where its operation is unsustainable? There is much talk of privatization of functions and sales of properties as part of the MAGA/Project2025 ideology. It puts me in the mind to question what standards we ought to have around the disposition of the public treasure? NPS is a valuable function for the public to run in protecting critical lands. How can a single administration decide its fate without real input from the people?
While the Trump administration struggles to rehire Federal employees, this is a post for you to spend a moment with. A former federal worker fired by DOGE cuts has kept his job-issued phone and laptop in refrigerated electronic limbo to protect it and his privacy until such time as the authorities decide how they should be returned. It is a spectacle of waste in the service of false economy, and therefore the perfect image of DOGE.
Infrastructure
On the complications of financing for major public works in an era of constrained resources, “If I were chancellor…” from Beth West - a veteran of Big Project leadership - provides insight to how this might be approached within the UK political economy.
Transportation
Red Sea transits are returning, up 60% since August 2024, but not yet restored to pre-Houthi campaign levels.
A bit of levity with the story of “logisti-gull” genius. “A female Western Gull was recorded riding 150km in a garbage truck from San Francisco to a compost facility in Central CA, probably to forage. TWICE. An innovator, an icon, a genius.” Paige Byerly, PhD, Editor, Waterbirds.