text: Chapter 7
  The requirements for engineer capabilities almost always exceed the capacity of available engineer
  units. This inevitably imposes pressure to delay preventive maintenance, checks, and services to avoid work
  stoppages, which increases the likelihood and length of future equipment failures and further compounds
  maintenance difficulties. It also frequently leads to the procurement of locally available construction
  materials, repair parts, and construction services. This brings its own unique challenges—and the need for
  financial management and contract management support. Most engineer units do not have dedicated
  contingency contracting teams, and this support is provided on a general support basis from the supporting
  operational contract support brigade, joint command (if established), or USACE district.
  Some key differences between contracted and military support include the following:
  * Contractor personnel who are authorized to accompany the force are neither combatants nor
  noncombatants. They are civilians who are authorized to accompany the force in the field.
  * Contractors are not in the chain of command. They are managed through their contracts and the
  contract management system, which should always include a unit contracting officer
  representative.
  * Contractors only perform tasks as specified in contracts by the terms of their contract.
  All of these challenges are predictable, and none of them should surprise engineer leaders or the staffs
  that support them. Engineers and staffs must anticipate such challenges, work to prevent them, and be
  prepared to overcome them. Because of the critical impact that sustainment has on engineer missions,
  engineer commanders and staffs must be thoroughly familiar with sustainment doctrine and organizations,
  as described in ADP 4-0 and subordinate publications. The importance and unique challenges of contracted
  support require engineer commanders and staffs to fully understand their role in planning for and managing
  contracted support, as described in ATP 4-92 and ATP 4-94.
  ORGANIZATIONS AND FUNCTIONS
  Sustainment support for engineers is provided by different organizations based on various factors, such
  as the echelon of the supported unit and command and support relationships. Although engineers should be
  familiar with all of the sustainment organizations described in ADP 4-0, some organizations provide support
  to engineers more frequently than others.
  PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINMENT
  As discussed in ADP 4-0, the principles of sustainment (integration, anticipation, responsiveness,
  simplicity, economy, survivability, continuity, and improvisation) are essential to maintaining combat power,
  enabling strategic and operational reach, and providing ARFOR with endurance. The sustainment challenges
  for engineer support (described at the beginning of this chapter) make it essential that engineer leaders and
  staffs effectively apply these principles. This section describes ways in which engineers apply the principles
  of sustainment.
  Engineers integrate sustainment with engineer plans. Sustainment must not be an afterthought.
  Engineers must coordinate and synchronize their operations with the elements of sustainment. This must
  occur at all levels of war and throughout the operations process at all echelons. Engineer planners evaluate
  the sustainment significance of each phase of the operation during the entire planning process. They create a
  clear and concise concept of support that integrates the commander’s intent and concept of operation. This
  includes analyzing the mission; developing, analyzing, wargaming, and recommending a COA; and
  executing the plan.
  Engineers must visualize future operations and identify the appropriate required support. They must
  then start the process of acquiring the materiel or placement of support that best sustains the operation. As
  early as possible, engineers must forecast requirements for Class IV and V supplies (and the transportation
  and material-handling support needed to move them) and initiate actions to acquire and place them where
  they will be needed. Engineer staff officers must do this long before specific engineer missions are assigned
  to specific engineer units. Otherwise, sufficient resources will likely be unavailable when needed. Engineers
  must also anticipate requirements for financial management and contract management support for the local