Contested Logistics & Installation Resilience

Sustainment that holds when the chain is under fire.

Assured Sustainment makes the chain that fuels, feeds and arms the force survivable, from the installation to the contested sea lane.

Start a conversation See the approach

Illustration of an installation, a fuel terminal and a supply ship connected by rerouting supply lines under a radar sweep

The approach

Every link is contested. Plan for the hit, and keep the flow moving.

An adversary does not have to sink a ship to stop sustainment. A substation, a rail spur, a fuel terminal or a single oiler can do it. We look at the whole chain, find the single points of failure and design the reroute before it is needed.

Primary flowPlanned rerouteInterdicted node

Where we work

Three segments, one chain

Most contested logistics work starts at the pier. The chain starts much earlier, at the installation that generates power, stores fuel and loads the cargo.

GENERATE

Installations that keep running when the grid does not

Energy and water resilience assessments
Facility-related control systems (FRCS) cyber exposure
Microgrids, on-site generation and storage planning
Utility privatization and land-lease partnerships

MOVE

Getting it to the waterfront under pressure

Strategic seaport and terminal dependencies
Port cybersecurity and operational technology
Bulk fuel distribution and data integrity
Alternate routing and node redundancy

PROJECT

Sustaining the force at sea

Combat logistics force and sealift readiness
Underway replenishment and at-sea fuel planning
Commercial shipping and mariner capacity
Scenario analysis for contested sustainment

Capabilities

What we deliver

Contested Maritime Logistics

Analysis and planning for sustaining naval and joint forces when ports, sea lanes and logistics ships are threatened.

Mission-thread and single-point-of-failure analysis
CLF, sealift and fuel-at-sea studies
White papers and requirements support

Installation Energy & Water Resilience

Helping installations keep critical missions powered and watered through extended utility outages.

Energy resilience tabletop exercises
Resilience requirements and project development
Utility privatization (10 USC 2688) support

Installation Partnerships

Guiding utilities, independent power producers and developers through siting projects on military land.

10 USC 2667 lease process navigation
Installation and developer coordination
Resilience value in kind

MapTrace the chain from source to user.

StressFind the nodes an adversary or outage would hit.

ExerciseRun the scenario with the people who own the decisions.

DesignBuild the reroute, redundancy or hardening.

DocumentLeave requirements and plans the customer can fund.

About

Built by a logistician who has kept a force supplied under pressure

Assured Sustainment LLC was founded by David Schwind, a former U.S. Navy officer with more than two decades of service and a career spent on both ends of the sustainment chain.

At sea, he led logistics for deployed naval forces, including keeping a force supplied in a combat zone when normal resupply was cut off. Ashore, he has led and supported energy and resilience work for the Army and the Air Force, taking utility and power partnerships from first meeting through permitting to operating projects. He brings over a decade of experience in commercial energy operations and development.

He is a published military historian, including a book and numerous articles on naval convoys of the Second World War, and regularly speaks on current-day contested maritime logistics.

At sea: Operational logistics leadership for deployed naval forces, including sustainment in a combat zone
Ashore: Installation energy, utility partnerships and resilience programs across the Army and the Air Force
Industry: Commercial energy operations and defense consulting
Writing: Author of Blue Seas, Red Stars, a history of Arctic convoy logistics; speaker on contested maritime logistics

Insights

Notes on contested sustainment

Articles are published here and on LinkedIn. Every factual claim is tied to a public, primary source.

Series · In preparation

Principles of contested logistics

Sixteen principles for sustaining a force when every link in the chain can be hit.

Fuel · In preparation

Fuel is the endurance constraint

What the finding that fuel is the dominant endurance constraint means for fleet and installation planners.

Installations · In preparation

The chain starts at the fence line

What a 14-day outage means for the installations that load the force.

Contact

Start a conversation

Assured Sustainment works with government organizations, installations, ports, utilities and industry teams on contested logistics and installation resilience. Send a note to start the conversation.

Chesapeake, Virginia