EDA tests Sharing of Spare Parts project during multinational exercise

Veszprém, Hungary - 24 June, 2015 by European Defence Agency
 

Earlier this month, at the Bakony Combat Training Centre in Hungary, the European Defence Agency attended exercise Capable Logistician 15. The event was coordinated by the Multinational Logistic Coordination Centre (MLCC) and supported by Hungary as host nation. Capable Logistician 15 provided the EDA with an opportunity to test its Sharing of Spare Parts (SoSP) mechanism and to prove the effectiveness of its operational procedures.

Sharing of Spare Parts (SoSP) is an initiative aimed at establishing a multinational framework for the request and provision of Mutual Logistic Support (MLS) in peacetime and during the execution of operations. MLS focuses on unforeseen and temporary shortages of common supplies as well as on in-service support for standard or specific equipment.

In this respect, Capable Logistician 15 offered a realistic scenario in which to simulate the lack of an appropriate level of logistic support - which in turn may have affected the operational effectiveness of a unit in the field. The unavailability of spare parts (in this simulated event, a transmission gear for land vehicles) has often caused serious problems in operations, especially where there is a particularly long logistic chain, where there are security considerations, or where similar collaborative solutions are not feasible or convenient.

The simulated application of the SoSP scheme allowed the exchange of spare parts between two units in the field which were using the same land vehicles.

More information

• Exercise Capable Logistician 2015
• Sharing of Spare Parts project page