In the Department of War, logistics isn’t always fast and light.
When it comes to Class IV materials — such as heavy construction, barriers and infrastructure — the supply chain is notoriously big, bulky and slow.
Because of the complexity of moving this material, military planners historically have faced challenges in getting these logistics exactly right. To improve those odds, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has called on ERDC to partner on CLARITY — a research project exploring how artificial intelligence can improve Class IV logistics planning.
The project is developing AI-enabled capabilities that help military planners rapidly analyze operational planning information and make more informed logistics decisions.
The development and continued validation of CLARITY is ensuring our Warfighters have the “right materials, in the right quantities, at the right location, at the right time.”
We discuss CLARITY with Dr. Haley Dozier from ERDC’s Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), and Troy Vokes, also with the ITL and CLARITY’s Class IV subject-matter expert.
Topics discussed include the logistical challenges of managing Class IV materials (1:41), how a miscalculation in Class IV materials impacts mission success and readiness (5:09), and how ERDC was brought on board to help solve this challenge (8:24). We also talked about what CLARITY is designed to do (12:04), the collaboration between DLA and ERDC (18:53), and how having these AI-validated plans mitigates risk for the Warfighter (24:05).
For more information about CLARITY, visit https://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Stories/Article/4187318/clarity-effort-aims-to-revolutionize-operations-for-combat-engineers. Watch a video of this podcast at PowerofERDCPodcast.org/72-CLARITY_video.
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