DOHA: This month Qatar will welcome some of the most senior international names in military logistics and support for the second Annual Qatar Defence Logistics and Support Forum running from November 11 to November 13.
This pioneering event is officially supported by the Qatar Armed Forces and has the direct backing of the Chief of General Staff.
Spearheading the project is Assistant Chief of Staff Logistics Brigadier General Nasser Mohammed Al Ali. Further to this a tri-service 50 strong delegation of senior officers will be in attendance from the Qatar Armed Forces, as well as senior officials from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia.
The event will feature senior military officers across international Armies, Navies, Air Forces and Joint Forces.
With military spending on the increase in the seemingly recession-proof Middle East region, logistics and support functions are essential for the continued efficiency of Armed Forces operations. This conference will cover the entire spectrum of logistics considerations for today’s military. Some of the subjects covered includes: Delivering timely support to the warfighter, Performance Based Logistics, NATO codification, lifecycle cost management, multilateral in-theatre tri-service interoperability and much more. The program also includes panel discussions looking at naval logistics and joint logistics.
“IQPC are delighted to have been chosen by the Qatar Armed Forces to organise this event. We bring a wealth of experience both regionally, and through our global leading Defence IQ portfolio of events. This event shows our support for the rapid growth and advancements happening in Qatar. This support is being reciprocated by the Qatar Armed Forces” said Symon Rubens, Managing Director, IQPC Middle East.
Vice Admiral Alberto Gauzolino, Admiral Chief Inspector of the Italian Navy and keynote speaker at the Qatar Defence Logistics and Support Forum, shed light on how the Italian Navy has taken on the challenges of developing an efficient, effective and interoperable logistics systems and strategies.
He said the greatest challenged faced in his years in logistics was, and still is, to get better efficiency facing a critical decrease of resources, both in human and budget terms.
“In other words, we want ‘to do more with less’. To put this challenge in the right perspective, it is important to underline that many things changed in the last decade.”
First of all, the duties that the Italian Navy has to accomplish, as requested by the government and dictated by the international situation changed radically, moving from operations carried out in a “local” area of interest toward an “enlarged Mediterranean” sea.
This generated the need to develop a naval capability to operate far from the bases and to stay at sea for longer time. Secondly, there is the need to have a smaller naval instrument, but definitely a more efficient one, flexible and more sustainable by a logistic point of view.
Explaining the differences in logistic pressures when supplying in time of war and peace, he said it is usual to make reference to either the logistics close to the crisis area, named “adherence logistics”, or to the activities that remain resident in the country, i.e. “support logistics”. This is true in general, but for the Navies the difference between the two is not so clear cut. The Peninsula
