text: Chapter 2
  Army Sustainment at Echelon
  This chapter provides an overview of sustainment roles, capabilities, and a general discussion
  of sustainment organizations at the national strategic, theater strategic, operational, and tactical
  levels of warfare. This chapter concludes with a discussion of joint command relationships,
  Army command and support relationships, and command and support relationships by echelon.
  SECTION I – LEVELS OF WARFARE
  2-1. The levels of warfare are a framework for defining and clarifying the relationship among national
  objectives, the operational approach, and tactical tasks (ADP 1-01). While the various methods of warfare
  are ultimately expressed in concrete military action, the four levels of warfare (national strategic, theater
  strategic, operational, and tactical) link tactical actions to achievement of national objectives. For additional
  information on the levels of warfare see JP 3-0 and FM 3-0.
  2-2. The levels of warfare distinguish four broad overlapping activities: providing national direction and
  creating national strategy (national strategic); conducting continuous theater campaigning (theater strategic);
  planning and conducting campaigns and major operations (operational); or planning and executing
  operations, battles, engagements, and actions (tactical).
  2-3. Sustainment organizations execute a series of tasks within the sustainment warfighting function that
  enable the continuous provision of sustainment across the levels of warfare throughout all domains. These
  tasks are executed across the competition continuum. Figure 2-1 on page 26 provides an overview of select
  tasks within each element of the sustainment warfighting function. These tasks are collectively linked to
  support operational objectives and unified action partners by enabling freedom of action, extending
  operational reach, and prolonging endurance during operations.
  2-4. U.S. leaders employ the Armed Forces of the United States, the military instrument of national power,
  in coordination with diplomatic, informational, and economic instruments to advance and defend U.S. values
  and interests, achieve objectives consistent with national strategy, and conclude operations on terms
  favorable to the United States. The Armed Forces of the United States achieve these objectives through
  unified action. Unified action is the synchronization, coordination, or integration of the activities of
  governmental and nongovernmental entities with military operations to achieve unity of effort (JP 1, Volume
  2).
  2-5. In order to effectively support large-scale combat operations, sustainment leaders must understand
  strategic-level sustainment forces and the capabilities each provides. Joint and Army forces receive support
  from the strategic support area. The strategic support area describes the area extending from a theater of
  operations to a base in the United States or another CCDR’s AOR. It includes the air and sea ports supporting
  the flow of forces and sustainment into the theater. The strategic base in the strategic support area includes a
  vast array of DOD, government, and private sector agencies that participate in the sustainment enterprise.
  The support provided includes strategic lift, materiel integration, financial management support, HR support,
  and medical services. This support often includes the ability of strategic providers to integrate and
  synchronize support while reaching from the strategic base directly to the end user and integrates with support
  received from the operational and tactical levels. An example of this is United States Army Materiel
  Command (USAMC) conducting force generation and executing materiel readiness in the strategic support
  area, and simultaneously integrating and synchronizing OCS at the theater strategic, operational, and tactical
  levels of warfare. Another example of this is United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM)
  integrating and synchronizing force deployment in the strategic support area and conducting reception,
  staging and onward movement of forces at the theater strategic level of warfare. The following paragraphs
  describe sustainment providers at the national strategic level of warfare. Sections II through IV of this chapter
  describe sustainment capabilities at the theater strategic level, operational level, and tactical levels of warfare.