Thinking about 21st century logistics: strategic brigade airdrop: effects of army transformation and modularity logistics executive agents: enhancing support to the joint warfighter.

Transformation permeates today's Army. The post-Cold War environment prompted the Service to examine its roles, mission, and structure during the 1990s. The 11 September attacks and Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom accelerated these activities.

With the close of th 20th century a new era continued to emerge within the US military. Methods used during the Cold War have proven to be both cumbersome and ineffective in meeting the demands of the 21st century. The old way is no way to face the new threats and challenges of today's military. Today's forces must be more responsive to particular threats, as well as the theater to which they are being deployed. The first article looks at the Army's process of transforming to better meet the challenges of the 21st century. Areas of focus include the restructure of forces to a modular design, capable of plugging and unplugging from specific ongoing operations. At the same time, the Air Force is lookign for ways to meet the Army's requirements for delivering such a capability. Both of the Services are working together to ensure that a flexible, capable force can be delivered within the parameters required. The second article examines executive agents and their role in support of the joint warfighter. A major theme of the article is efficiency of the supply chain and the logistics footprint. Efficiency is critical to supporthing light, lean, and lethal forces.