How Defense Requirements Planning Shapes the Future of Military Logistics

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;06;25
Nick Powers
Coming into this, as did you, you were like, “I want to see this while I’m talking to Nick.”

00;00;06;27 – 00;00;30;02
Kaylee Templeman
I don’t really think so. I think one aspect of our particular contract, the CPCD, or Campaign Plans and Capability Development, particularly the capability development side of the house, is being really, really impacted by the current administration and the DOGE reform that’s happening. Right now, the DoD is completely redoing the way they want to communicate requirements.

00;00;30;04 – 00;00;45;16
Kaylee Templeman
We’re working through that now, trying to figure out how we can continue to communicate TRANSCOM’s top needs across the joint force, to Congress, and everybody like that. I would say that’s one of the biggest challenges happening right now and kind of worth talking about.

00;00;45;19 – 00;01;06;10
Nick Powers
One thing I was never good at was this: when we built the business, it really started off as a strategy company, right? What you’re doing today is really at the root of this company. Then little Army shows up, and I start building technology solutions inside of a strategy company.

00;01;06;10 – 00;01;32;21
Nick Powers
At the time, I didn’t really appreciate that what you do, especially what you do in particular, has an impact on me as a technology guy. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but next year, the year after, and the year after that. I think that’s something people don’t understand: the planning you all are doing is really setting the stage for folks like me to go execute.

00;01;32;21 – 00;02;04;02
Nick Powers
Just for a layman, because I don’t understand 90% of what you do, but J-codes and all these other acronyms get thrown around. If you could boil it down to a few components of what a campaign plan is, could you describe it in two or three parts and say, “This leads to this, which leads to that, which then leads to these things”? Or maybe it’s not that easy.

00;02;04;02 – 00;02;05;27
Nick Powers
Maybe it’s not that easy.

00;02;05;27 – 00;02;24;07
Kaylee Templeman
Not necessarily for the campaign plan part of it, because that’s the other task area of the contract. For the requirements piece of it, I can walk you through what that looks like for us. There is a Title 10 requirement that there is a list of what keeps a combatant commander up at night.

00;02;24;07 – 00;02;43;26
Kaylee Templeman
All of the combatant commands and the National Guard submit a one-through-20 list of their biggest issues. For TRANSCOM, we can expect that all of our stuff has to do with transportation, right? Moving stuff, our airplanes, making sure our SDDC in the Army can move all of their trains, and making sure the ports are all good and everything like that.

00;02;43;29 – 00;03;04;18
Kaylee Templeman
On an annual basis, we make this list. That list rolls up to the joint force, so all of the heads of the forces see what’s going on and what the needs are. Then that goes to Congress. Currently, what is about to get released is the NDAA, or the National Defense Authorization Act. The big defense budget is informed by that list.

00;03;04;19 – 00;03;20;09
Kaylee Templeman
What we say now and what we work on now impacts the budgets for the next three to five years. We’re continuing to fight for TRANSCOM’s needs and making sure our four-star has all the information he needs to try to get the money from Congress and the services. Does that make sense?

00;03;20;18 – 00;03;21;29
Nick Powers
Yeah, absolutely.

00;03;21;29 – 00;03;28;03
Kaylee Templeman
That’s the cycle we go through. Then it’s continually fighting for the funding to keep TRANSCOM going.

00;03;28;03 – 00;03;44;00
Nick Powers
You talked a little bit about the list, right? The list of what keeps the commander up. I’m sure there’s a reason why we have a four-star general in charge, and he or she has gone through a lot of different things in their career.

00;03;44;00 – 00;03;59;13
Nick Powers
At the end of the day, they’re only here for a two- or three-year span at a time, typically. It’s incumbent upon them to lean on all the folks who are there all the time. How do you all know what should keep the commander up at night so you can make recommendations?

00;03;59;16 – 00;04;19;23
Kaylee Templeman
That’s a great question. I think that’s really where the consistency of having the civilian force in TRANSCOM matters, like the deputy directors. Each of the one- or two-star directors for each thing, like J4, J5, J3, and whatnot, will have their general, and then they’ll have the civilian under them.

00;04;19;26 – 00;04;38;24
Kaylee Templeman
Those people have been there for 10 or 15 years. That’s the continuity. All of the subject matter experts in the command bring that continuity between each of our commanders and continue to communicate the same needs. It’s also helpful that, at TRANSCOM, we’re asking for billions upon billions of dollars for things.

00;04;38;24 – 00;04;44;14
Kaylee Templeman
Those aren’t really going anywhere. It’s kind of the same problem from year to year, so it makes it a little easier for them.

00;04;44;16 – 00;05;13;29
Nick Powers
Are there problems that have popped up in the last couple of years? For instance, we took on the global fuel mission, I guess you could say, for the entire Department of Defense. Maybe a little sexier topic might be space. How have you all tapped into what we might need to go to space and transport separately? Is some of that going on right now?

00;05;14;02 – 00;05;29;12
Kaylee Templeman
There is. We have a couple of folks from the Space Force; I actually sit right next to them. We have some dedicated space subject matter experts, and we’re still at the point of outlining what those requirements look like. How could TRANSCOM use space? What would we put up there?

00;05;29;17 – 00;05;45;14
Kaylee Templeman
What do we need? How long does it stay up there? How do we get it down? Who could we partner with to get up there? They’re still outlining a lot of that, but we’re tied very closely. I think once they have an idea of what we can do, it will go through the formal process of trying to get the money, and my team will be more involved with it.

00;05;45;14 – 00;05;47;19
Kaylee Templeman
For now, they’re still ironing it out.

00;05;47;19 – 00;06;06;21
Nick Powers
Still trying to figure it out. I remember three or four years ago, they got the mission given to them: transportation of supplies and other things to and from space will go through U.S. TRANSCOM. It’s a pretty exciting mission to try to solve for, for sure.

00;06;06;23 – 00;06;07;17
Kaylee Templeman
Yeah. Definitely unique.

00;06;07;21 – 00;06;25;05
Nick Powers
I’m going to roll it back a little bit because I’m curious. I think you started out as a government intern. Is that true?

00;06;25;06 – 00;06;44;08
Kaylee Templeman
I did. I was a graduate assistant when I was working on my master’s at SIUE, and the professor I had had a friend who was running that intern program. It was one of those, “You happen to know a guy who knows a guy” situations. I wanted to expand my horizons and do something because, at that point, I still didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I grew up.

00;06;44;08 – 00;06;56;05
Kaylee Templeman
I was just taking what I could. I started working as an intern, and then eventually ended up working at SDDC. I got a GS-7/9/11 step.

00;06;56;12 – 00;06;57;06
Nick Powers
Got it.

00;06;57;08 – 00;07;17;10
Kaylee Templeman
But COVID completely ruined what that job was supposed to be. I ended up working from home on spreadsheets all day, and I hated my life. When something at UNCOMN opened up, I came over here. It was pretty much, not to be dismissive of it, the first thing I could take to get out of that current situation.

00;07;17;12 – 00;07;22;17
Kaylee Templeman
Then one thing led to another, and I’m here doing this job, which I absolutely love. It all worked out well.

00;07;22;22 – 00;07;26;28
Nick Powers
You talked about getting your MBA. What was your bachelor’s?

00;07;26;28 – 00;07;31;10
Kaylee Templeman
My bachelor’s was in Computer Management and Information Systems.

00;07;31;11 – 00;07;32;02
Nick Powers
CMIS.

00;07;32;02 – 00;07;41;25
Kaylee Templeman
CMIS. Then my master’s is actually in instructional design, so it’s in education. Again, it was kind of off the wall because I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

00;07;42;00 – 00;07;44;12
Nick Powers
CMIS at SIUE?

00;07;44;12 – 00;07;44;18
Kaylee Templeman
Yep.

00;07;44;20 – 00;07;54;06
Nick Powers
We probably had a lot of the same professors and stuff. I’m a few years ahead of you, but I also graduated from that department.

00;07;54;06 – 00;07;54;20
Kaylee Templeman
Oh, very cool.

00;07;54;20 – 00;08;00;16
Nick Powers
I did not stay around to get my master’s, but I definitely understand. Like Dr. Powell.

00;08;00;16 – 00;08;02;06
Kaylee Templeman
I was going to say her name.

00;08;02;09 – 00;08;10;12
Nick Powers
She’s the continuity from when I was there. Several of the older folks have left, but she’s still around, and I’m sure she’s getting close to retirement.

00;08;10;13 – 00;08;12;19
Kaylee Templeman
I would think so. She’s great people.

00;08;12;26 – 00;08;33;14
Nick Powers
Funny side joke, and this is kind of how we do this. We can just talk about whatever, and they’ll edit it all out. After a number of years of being away from SIUE, I reached out to them about their steering group to help them learn from industry and figure out what they should teach the students.

00;08;33;16 – 00;08;58;03
Nick Powers
They were reaching out, and we were signing up. I started seeing Dr. Powell’s signature on some emails, and then I showed up to a meeting. She walked over to introduce herself, which, of course, I already knew her, but she didn’t necessarily remember me. The reason she didn’t necessarily remember me was because I had a penchant for skipping class.

00;08;58;05 – 00;09;14;12
Nick Powers
The next time around, she came back to me and said, “I can’t remember what class it is, but I take a picture at the end of the semester of the entire class. After I talked to you, I went back to my pictures and started going through the years you were there to see you in the picture, and you weren’t in the picture.”

00;09;14;12 – 00;09;30;06
Nick Powers
She said, “Why weren’t you in the picture?” I said, “Ma’am, I apologize, but I skipped a lot of class.” It is what it is, but she had a good laugh about that. Did you have Sumner while you were there at all?

00;09;34;24 – 00;09;37;15
Kaylee Templeman
I did. The name is familiar. I can’t remember exactly what.

00;09;37;20 – 00;09;43;29
Nick Powers
Dr. Sumner? She was something else. She’s got a 1,000-person company in St. Louis now.

00;09;44;00 – 00;09;44;16
Kaylee Templeman
Oh, really?

00;09;44;17 – 00;09;46;05
Nick Powers
Called SumnerOne.

00;09;46;08 – 00;09;53;23
Kaylee Templeman
Oh, yeah. I think I interviewed with them, actually. I think it was right after she maybe started that company. That was one of the first interviews I had.

00;09;53;26 – 00;10;10;16
Nick Powers
It’s been around for a little while, but it was kind of on the DL. Then when she pulled out of SIUE and retired from there, she went guns blazing, and that thing has exploded. Her sons are running it with her and stuff, so it’s pretty cool. Some neat people.

00;10;10;19 – 00;10;16;10
Nick Powers
Ralph Korte just passed away not too long ago. He was a big contributor to the business department, CMIS.

00;10;16;10 – 00;10;39;09
Kaylee Templeman
I don’t think people take logistics seriously enough, or sustainment seriously enough. These things will not just magically appear where you want them to appear. There’s a lot of planning and movement and cost and place and everything associated with it. If I were queen for a day and could make everybody care about that a little bit more, I think that would be the number one thing.

00;10;39;12 – 00;10;41;07
Nick Powers
I think they cared a little bit more.

00;10;41;08 – 00;10;41;29
Kaylee Templeman
They’re getting there.

00;10;41;29 – 00;10;43;04
Nick Powers
Right around COVID.

00;10;43;04 – 00;10;44;02
Kaylee Templeman
Right around COVID.

00;10;44;02 – 00;10;45;09
Nick Powers
People started understanding.

00;10;45;10 – 00;10;46;02
Kaylee Templeman
Reality check.

00;10;46;02 – 00;10;51;00
Nick Powers
That logistics was a big deal. But we’re kind of getting back into our old ways a little bit, I think.

00;10;51;00 – 00;11;09;21
Kaylee Templeman
I think currently, they’re working on redoing the UCP missions, the Unified Command Plan missions. Whenever they redo that, I think there’s going to be more of a focus on logistics. Hopefully, that rollout will also push everybody to take it more seriously.

00;11;09;21 – 00;11;23;22
Nick Powers
We’ve always talked a little bit about it internally, but I think one of the deciding factors that makes the U.S. military the U.S. military is its logistics capability.

00;11;23;23 – 00;11;24;08
Kaylee Templeman
Yeah.

00;11;24;11 – 00;11;47;20
Nick Powers
There’s no one in the world that can sustain potentially three to four wars at any given time because we have the back end to do so. A big part of that, which people don’t understand, is that it’s not necessarily the military doing the moves. It’s actually our industrial base, right? We’ve created tremendous relationships over the years that are able to support us and get that mission done.

00;11;47;23 – 00;11;53;25
Nick Powers
Have you been able to get out with the industry partners and feel a little bit of what that’s like?

00;11;53;27 – 00;11;54;11
Kaylee Templeman
Not really.

00;11;54;12 – 00;12;10;05
Nick Powers
Really? I’d love to see if I can help with that. There’s nothing better than going to a carrier meeting. We do host some of those every once in a while. I don’t know how much they do it as we used to, mainly because when we’re in war, we used to have one a week.

00;12;10;05 – 00;12;21;19
Nick Powers
Every week, J3 would host a meeting on the third deck, planning what we were going to try to do the next week and so on and so forth. They actually had carrier people who had to live here.

00;12;21;19 – 00;12;22;05
Kaylee Templeman
Yeah.

00;12;22;05 – 00;12;38;12
Nick Powers
That’s great, to be able to go to those meetings and coordinate with the government. The other thing they did was have an industry liaison who got a badge and was able to sit inside J3 and coordinate across all the ocean carriers.

00;12;38;13 – 00;13;11;29
Nick Powers
Because there are only so many ships. Getting a feel for that is really neat. Our work at the Port of Long Beach was easy to step into because a lot of us had that experience dealing with the transportation industry and had an appreciation for the complexity of the data and, really, the sensitivity of the data. As you all are planning future requirements, obviously zero trust is here. Is that all rolled into one big requirement of, “We’ve got to be secure,” or do they break that down and it becomes three, four, or five different things?

00;13;23;18 – 00;13;42;25
Kaylee Templeman
It’s three to five different things, depending on what carriers are using, what type of systems, like NIPR or JOPES, we’re talking about, and the hardening and strengthening of each one of those and all the different communications. Then there’s also stuff for each specific mode, like planes versus ships.

00;13;43;01 – 00;13;55;04
Kaylee Templeman
Those all have different requirements. It’s the same general idea of, “We need to have protected communications and clear visibility of all this data,” but we separate it out into multiple requirements.

00;13;55;04 – 00;13;58;28
Nick Powers
Got it. So you say you love what you do.

00;13;59;01 – 00;14;00;28
Kaylee Templeman
I do love what I do.

00;14;01;01 – 00;14;04;22
Nick Powers
What is the main thing that makes you feel that way?

00;14;04;24 – 00;14;36;11
Kaylee Templeman
I love you guys. When you were talking with Wendy earlier, I overheard it all. I take a lot of pride in supporting the warfighter and knowing we’re having a positive impact and communicating things. Then from a more selfish aspect, I think it’s really, really cool to be sitting in these meetings with the four-star general, the three-star, and multiple one- and two-stars. There was a point last year, right before the previous commander left, where there were six of us in a room at a table, and she was talking so openly about what her concerns were and what she wanted to make sure she did before she left the command.

00;14;36;11 – 00;14;53;06
Kaylee Templeman
That is such a unique experience. To then carry that and try to make sure we’re still doing what we can to put that into practice, I just take a lot of pride in that. I think that’s really cool.

00;14;53;08 – 00;15;24;01
Nick Powers
That is very cool. There was nothing like it when I went to my first-ever briefing to a two-star. I had to go to his office on the third floor, and there’s pomp and circumstance with that. You stand up when he walks in the room, and you do not sit down until he sits down. There are just different things that go with working with the military, especially general officers, and they have an incredible amount of insight to offer you that you don’t normally get.

00;15;24;04 – 00;16;01;00
Nick Powers
Like you said, it’s incredibly unique. It gives me a flashback. I wouldn’t say it’s PTSD, but it is a flashback to those days of briefing generals and having those interactions. It’s priceless. These are people who not only achieved more than other people, but there’s also a timing aspect. I’m sure, being from a military family, you can understand that. It’s not only doing the job and doing it excellently, but having the right things line up for you to get to that level.

00;16;01;00 – 00;16;23;17
Nick Powers
To get there is just special. I don’t think people fully respect it like they should, maybe the way generations past have done. I’ll touch on one last thing before I let you go, circling back to your military family.

00;16;23;18 – 00;16;30;18
Nick Powers
Awesome military family.

00;16;30;21 – 00;16;49;27
Nick Powers
I’m guessing that has a little bit to do with the pride because you’re seeing what your dad had to go through for 20-plus years, all the work he did to keep our planes in the air. You’re playing your part now, and you’re actually able to see and do things even at a higher level than he did.

00;16;49;27 – 00;16;56;24
Nick Powers
Can you talk a little bit about how that touches those pride points?

00;16;56;24 – 00;17;26;03
Kaylee Templeman
I guess I’ve never really thought about it that way, but that is what it is and where that comes from. Having my dad deployed all the time growing up, especially in the prime of the 2000s, it means a lot now to make sure we’re doing what we can so those warfighters also come home, can do their stuff, are prepared, and can continue to fight the good fight.

00;17;26;06 – 00;17;31;07
Kaylee Templeman
Like I said, I’ve never really thought about it before, but I think there is a lot of pride coming from that particular spot.

00;17;31;13 – 00;17;56;23
Nick Powers
Absolutely. My dad was in the Air Force for a few years. They basically kicked him out; they didn’t want him anymore. Then my grandpa was in the Army during World War II. He was a Bataan prisoner of war for 18 months.

00;17;56;26 – 00;18;17;19
Nick Powers
When I went to maybe do my duty, my dad immediately cut me off and said, “No, you will not go into the Air Force until you’re graduated from college.” Circumstances being what they may, I never made it back to the recruiter’s office. But this has been a way for me to get back, even though I don’t have the direct experiences that you had, where your dad literally had to go to war.

00;18;17;22 – 00;18;36;20
Nick Powers
My dad did all his service before I was born, but I feel that through this company. We all are kind of aligned similarly, in that we want to provide value and do whatever we can to help our country get where we need to go. I think it’s a terrific part of UNCOMN, for sure.

00;18;36;23 – 00;18;37;01
Nick Powers
Yeah.

00;18;37;01 – 00;18;38;05
Kaylee Templeman
For sure. You’re great.

00;18;38;12 – 00;18;40;03
Nick Powers
Thanks, Kaylee. I appreciate it.