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The purpose of this paper is to provide insight on high-interest areas of research in defense-related logistics and supply chain management and opportunities for advancing theory and practice in this domain.

A panel of experts provided their insight to several questions oriented toward examining research opportunities and gaps in defense logistics research at the 2018 Academic Research Symposium of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals annual conference on September 30, 2018.

Three overarching themes emerged from the panel discussion for advancing theory and practice in defense logistics and supply chain management, which are developing a central repository, creating publication opportunities and integrating research practice and knowledge with the greater academic community.

Logistics and supply chain research is critical for advancing knowledge and practice in the military, as well as industrial settings. The intention in this manuscript is to provide scholars and practitioners in both settings greater awareness and potential avenues for developing synergies and processes for advancing logistics and supply chain research.

In 2006, the U.S. Defense Acquisition Executive approved a program at the Naval Postgraduate School to solicit, evaluate, and fund proposals for innovative and scholarly acquisition research. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of proposals from 2007 to the present. It seeks to provide an understanding of the types and sources of research proposals, and the extent to which the programʼs goal has been achieved. Cluster and trend analyses classify and examine the data according to several key aspects, such as: topical area (e.g., contracting, logistics); research type (e.g., exploratory, hypothesis testing); research design (e.g., case study, experiment); and type of analysis (e.g., comparative, statistical). The results show positive trends, but the number of institutions with interest in defense acquisition remains low, suggesting that it remains a limited niche research topic.

Military technology is traditionally shrouded in secrecy. Even joint research between allies can be a marriage of convenience. But with the end of the Cold War and greater European integration, the technological landscape is changing, and a closer interface is emerging between military and civilian technologies. A worldwide stagnation in defence spending is accelerating the take‐up of commercial off‐the‐shelf technologies, while in the aerospace sector, the factors of safety and the environment are becoming at least as important as cost.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the special issue on defence logistics. To achieve this, an overview of the field of defence logistics is offered together with a discussion of the historical and contemporary issues that have confronted researchers and practitioners. Current research is described, and a research agenda for future work in the field is proposed.

The paper is based upon a conceptual discussion of defence logistics as it has been studied in the past and is being studied in the present, and a reflection on the ways in which past research can usefully inform future research agendas.

The paper discusses the current state of defence logistics research, and proposes a research agenda for future work based upon the anticipated characteristics of future combat operations.

A future research agenda is proposed that is informed by recent transformations in the conduct of warfare, as well as through anticipated changes in the global strategic landscape. Comparisons are made between defence logistics operations and their commercial counterparts to illustrate where there may be opportunities for adaptation based on the underlying similarities.

This paper discusses the major threads and themes of defence logistics research as a discipline, highlights the changing landscape of conflict in the 21st century and provides a future research agenda for those working in the field.

A deteriorating security situation and an increased need for defence equipment calls for new forms of collaboration between Armed Forces and the defence industry. This paper aims to investigate the ways in which the accelerating demand for increased security of supply of equipment and supplies to the Armed Forces requires adaptability in the procurement process that is governed by laws on public procurement (PP).

This paper is based on a review of current literature as well as empirical data obtained through interviews with representatives from the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration and the Swedish defence industry.

Collaboration with the globalized defence industry requires new approaches, where the PP rules make procurement of a safe supply of defence equipment difficult.

The study's empirical data and findings are based on the Swedish context. In order to draw more general conclusions in a defence context, the study should be expanded to cover more nations.

The findings will enable the defence industry and the procurement authorizations to better understand the requirements of Armed Forces, and how to cooperate under applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

The paper extends the extant body of academic knowledge of the security of supply into the defence sector. It serves as a first step towards articulating a call for new approaches to collaboration in defence supply chains.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate Department of Defense (DoD)-backed innovation programs as a means of enhancing the adoption of new technology throughout the armed forces.

The distribution of 1.29 million defense contract awards over seven years was analyzed across a data set of more than 8,000 DoD-backed innovation program award recipients. Surveys and interviews of key stakeholder groups were conducted to contextualize the quantitative results and garner additional insights.

Nearly half of DoD innovation program participants achieve no meaningful growth in direct defense business after program completion, and most small, innovative companies that win follow-on defense contracts solely support their initial sponsor branch. Causes for these program failures include the fact that programs do not market participants’ capabilities to the defense community and do not track participant companies after program completion.

Because the DoD does not market the capabilities of its innovation program participants internally, prospective DoD customers conduct redundant market research or fail to modernize. Program participants become increasingly unwilling to invest in the DoD market long term after the programs fail to deliver their expected benefits.

Limited scholarship evaluates the efficacy of DoD-backed innovation programs as a means of enhancing force readiness. This research not only uses a vast data set to demonstrate the failures of these programs but also presents concrete recommendations for improving them – including establishing an “Innovators Database” to track program participants and an incentive to encourage contracting entities and contractors to engage with them.

Defence supply chains (SCs) aim at operational outcomes, and armed forces depend on them to provide availability and preparedness in peace and sustainability in war. Previous research has focussed on strategies for SCs aiming at financial outcomes. This raises the question of how suitable commercial supply chain strategies (SCSs) are for supply chain design (SCD) in defence. The purpose of this paper is to explain the constructs of SCSs that satisfy military operational requirements and to propose SCSs that are appropriate in defence.

This paper reports on a Delphi study with 20 experts from Swedish defence authorities. Through three Delphi rounds, two workshops and a validation round, these experts contributed to the reported findings.

The findings demonstrate that commercial SC constructs are acceptable and applicable in defence but not sufficient. An additional strategy is required to satisfy requirements on availability, preparedness and sustainability. The paper shows that different requirements in peace and war make it challenging to design suitable defence SCs and proposes eight SCSs that satisfy these requirements.

The results emanate from the Swedish defence context and further research is required for generalisation.

This paper extends theory by investigating SCs aiming at operational outcomes. For managers in companies and defence authorities, it explicates how the unique issues in defence must influence SCD to satisfy operational requirements.

The military of today depends on the availability and readiness of high-technology weapon systems. As the military often has to focus on core tasks (the usage of systems), logistics and support tasks are outsourced to industry, which means that industrial suppliers gain importance for making weapon systems available and mission ready. However, companies are profit-maximizing and invest their best resources in the most promising business areas, which might be clients other than the (domestic) military customer. This raises the question of how the military can ensure that the defense industry provides the best performance: preferential treatment for the military. The purpose of this study is to investigate preferential treatment in the specific context of defense.

This paper reports on the examination of factors influencing preferential treatment for the military. The analysis uses structural equation modeling and data from a sample of German defense suppliers.

The results show that the perceived customer attractiveness has a strong effect on preferential customer treatment. Attractiveness is influenced by trust, commitment and a comparison with other customers.

There are several implications for defense theory and practice, including the need for further consideration of relational in contrast to transactional practices in military–industrial supply collaboration, as these seem highly relevant for getting the best resources for producing and maintaining weapon systems. In addition, increasing customer attractiveness, in particular if the military lacks a domestic defense industry base, is proposed.

The findings are based on a focus sample of only defense suppliers. This paper transfers the industrial discussion about the buyer–supplier relationships and preferential customer treatment to the defense logistics research context.

When deploying a frigate to the Gulf of Aden as a part of the Operation Atalanta, the Norwegian Defence outsourced logistics to a TPL provider. The purpose of this paper is to explore the cooperation between the Defence and the TPL provider during the operation.

A qualitative design was chosen. Semi‐structured interviews were combined with relevant secondary sources. A theoretical framework formed the basis for the interviews.

No long‐term history existed between the parties before the cooperation, and no psychological contracts between individuals at tactical levels were made beforehand. Yet the cooperation was a success. It seems that this to a large degree depended on the individuals assigned to the project.

The research highlights the need to address not only how to design physical supply structures but also how to ensure adequate levels of collaborative competence within civil‐military project groups. Further research is needed to investigate how to embed key suppliers in Defence logistics structures and how supply chains for short‐term, limited deployments impact on logistics arrangements for the permanent structure of the Defence.

This research gives the Norwegian Defence valuable knowledge about how to collaborate with commercial logistics providers.

This research highlights challenges when embedding suppliers into military supply chains. This is of importance not just when supplying deployed forces but also when considering supplier integration, e.g. through PPP and PBL.

The British Government is driven by the concept of value for money and is seeking ways in which to fund projects in the public sector. In the defence sector, this is resulting in the formation of public‐private partnerships and a close working relationship between the Government and defence companies. As well as placing the UK’s defence capability within the context of national security, it also needs to be placed within the context of the Government’s foreign policy which is focused on international conflict prevention. The UK Government remains committed to encouraging international collaboration as this should witness technology transfer from the defence sector to the civil sector. Makes reference to nine factors which underlie collaboration in the defence sector and draws on the expertise of defence sector experts who provide insights into the defence industry. Refers to a postal survey which was undertaken in 1999 in order to establish which areas of defence management would receive increased attention in both the short term and the long term. Finally, highlights the Executive Intelligence Alliance Policy and Strategy (EIAPS) Charter which can be used by defence company personnel as a framework to develop long‐term working relationships with other defence companies, government departments and universities.