US Army embracing remote maintenance beyond Ukraine

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army is applying the telemaintenance capability it developed in a parking lot in Poland to its most challenging logistical theater — the Indo-Pacific, according to the head of Army Materiel Command.

“It has been a great enabler to the warfight in Ukraine,” Gen. Charles Hamilton told Defense News in an interview just ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army conference. “It’s one of the game changers in a sense.”

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the United States quickly began sending weapons to Ukraine. Ukrainian troops soon needed help maintaining M777 howitzers they had received, so the Army began offering remote maintenance support from Poland.

Hamilton said he has witnessed telemaintenance in action, in one case watching maintainers talk Ukraine soldiers through fixing a piece of equipment “that was already blown up” to get it back into the fight to fire a few more rounds.

Now, AMC, working with U.S. Army Pacific and the 8th Theater Sustainment Command, is readying to use this telemaintenance capability in the challenging environment of the Indo-Pacific. It will first try it in a variety of exercises, including the Defender series and Talisman Sabre in Australia, Hamilton said.

“Not only are we going to take it to INDO-PACOM, we’re going to take it to national training centers as well out at Fort Irwin, California, and Fort Polk, [Lousiana], and that way we make it a part of our doctrine and how we train,” Hamilton said. “That’s how good of an enabler it is.”

The virtual maintenance effort that began last year has since grown dramatically. The Army built a standalone facility as well as a repair parts warehouse. Ukrainian soldiers can now communicate with staff at the Army’s U.S.-based depots, giving maintainers access to expert engineers and original equipment manufacturers.

Experts stateside and in European depots and installations are communicating with Ukrainian maintainers via text message chats, prerecorded video or live stream to work through issues or guide a repair.

Remote capability isn’t new, but the connection between international coalition forces and Ukraine is growing by the day and providing a road map for future battlefield plans, Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan, the deputy chief of AMC, told Defense News in an interview earlier this year.

The Army is using this experience to inform its thinking about “distributed sustainment operations on a highly lethal battlefield,” said Mohan, who previously led Army theater sustainment in Europe.

Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

华盛顿——据美国陆军装备司令部司令称，美国陆军正在将其在波兰停车场开发的远程维护能力应用于其最具挑战性的后勤战区——印太地区。

“它极大地推动了乌克兰战争的进行，”查尔斯·汉密尔顿将军在美军协会会议召开前接受《防务新闻》采访时表示，“从某种意义上说，它是改变战局的关键因素之一。”

2022年2月俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后，美国迅速开始向乌克兰运送武器。乌克兰军队很快需要帮助维护他们收到的M777榴弹炮，因此美国陆军开始从波兰提供远程维护支持。

汉密尔顿说他亲眼目睹了远程维护的实际应用，有一次他看到维护人员指导乌克兰士兵修理一件“已经炸毁”的设备，使其重新投入战斗，再发射几发炮弹。

汉密尔顿表示，目前，美国陆军物资司令部（AMC）正与美国陆军太平洋司令部和第八战区保障司令部合作，准备在充满挑战的印太地区环境中运用这项远程维护能力。AMC将首先在包括“捍卫者”系列演习和在澳大利亚举行的“护身军刀”演习在内的各种演习中进行测试。

“我们不仅会将其推广到印太司令部，还会推广到位于加利福尼亚州欧文堡和路易斯安那州波尔克堡的国家训练中心，这样就能将其纳入我们的作战条令和训练方式，”汉密尔顿说。“这就是它强大的辅助作用。”

去年启动的虚拟维护项目发展迅猛。陆军不仅建造了一座独立的设施，还建立了一个维修零件仓库。现在，乌克兰士兵可以与美国陆军基地的工作人员进行沟通，使维护人员能够接触到专家工程师和原始设备制造商。

美国和欧洲各仓库及设施的专家正在通过短信聊天、预录视频或直播与乌克兰维护人员沟通，以解决问题或指导维修。

美国陆军物资司令部副司令克里斯托弗·莫汉中将今年早些时候在接受《防务新闻》采访时表示，远程作战能力并不新鲜，但国际联军与乌克兰之间的联系日益密切，为未来的战场计划提供了路线图。

莫汉说，陆军正在利用这一经验来指导其对“在高度致命的战场上进行分布式保障行动”的思考，他此前曾领导陆军在欧洲的战区保障工作。

珍·贾德森是一位屡获殊荣的记者，为《防务新闻》报道陆地战争。她也曾为《政治报》和《内幕防务》工作。她拥有波士顿大学新闻学硕士学位和凯尼恩学院文学学士学位。