Joint Force Toolkit (JFT^®)

CDM developed the Joint Force Toolkit (JFT®) as a suite of collaborative software tools that enable joint logistics assessment as a real-time component of concept development rather than as a post-concept task. JFT® provides planners with context-sensitive tools that can convert operational courses of action into logistics support plans detailing operational inventory, distribution requirements, service support actions, transportation assets, and basing implications. In doing so, JFT® enables commanders to weigh assigned logistics assets against projected needs and contingency options.

History

In 2007, the U.S. Joint Staff’s Director for Logistics, J4, contracted CDM to develop intelligent software that would assist joint logistics planners (among them, Strategic Providers, Unified Combatant Command planners, Service Components, and Force planners) in determining and evaluating the supportability of joint courses of action. The software had to be capable of transforming joint courses of action and concepts of logistics support into inventory and distribution requirements. Additionally, the software had to be interoperable with existing military databases (e.g., GCSS, GCCS, CFAST, and IGS) and be readily mastered by its target users. To meet these needs, CDM developed the Joint Force Toolkit (JFT®).

JFT® Capabilities

• Imports data from existing tools, adds logistics planning analysis results, and exports the results back for review by planning staffs.

  
  

• Integrates unit characteristics, maneuvers, terrain, weather, and other planning factors to transform proposed courses of action (COAs) into item-level inventory projections required in each operational phase of the proposed campaign.

  
  

• Frames operating conditions, such as available transports, and assesses the adequacy of those assets to satisfy intra-theater distribution requirements for each operational phase in the proposed campaign.

  
  

• Assesses the logistic feasibility of a specific operational plan, scenario, or mission, and responsively revises that assessment when changes occur.

  
  

• Assesses the proposed Concept of Logistics Support (COLS) and assists in the generation of the Logistics Supportability Analysis (LSA), the Theater Distribution Plan (TDP), and the Logistics Synchronization Matrix (LSM).

  
  

• Incorporates proposed host nation support into assessments of supply support and distribution.

  
  

• Assists in the identification of logistics-related opportunity costs and risks.

  
  

• Provides continuous and responsive decision support to joint logistics planners throughout concept development, plan development, and plan assessment.

  
  

• Integrates a set of loosely coupled functional capabilities in the form of intelligent thin- and thick-client tools.

To learn more about JFT®, feel free to Contact Us.