The Defense Logistics Agency Marches With X12
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is the Department of Defense's (DoD's) logistics combat support agency, providing worldwide logistics support in both peacetime and wartime to the military services as well as several civilian agencies and foreign countries. DLA sources and supplies nearly all of the consumable items America's military forces need to operate – from food, fuel and energy to uniforms, medical supplies and construction material. DLA also supplies nearly 86 percent of the military's spare parts, manages the reutilization of military equipment, and provides logistics information products and document automation and production services.
(Source: www.dla.mil)
DLA's Defense Automatic Addressing System (DAAS) has been operating in the Electronic Business (eB) domain for over 30 years, concentrating primarily on military standard transactions. Since 1993, DAAS has been operating an eB hub of primarily X12-based EDI transactions. In terms of transaction volume (average of 102 million X12-based transactions per month in the first five months of Fiscal Year 2017), the DAAS eB hub is the largest in DoD, providing a single communications pathway between DoD Component systems and many Value-Added Networks (VANS) and the private sector trading partners served by those VANS.
(Source: www.transactionservices.dla.mil/daashome/homepage.asp)
The Defense Logistics Management Standards (DLMS) Program Office has developed and maintains more than 65 X12-based implementation conventions (guides) and equivalent XML schemas used by the DoD and its trading partners in support of the supply chain operations worldwide. It also publishes and maintains the Defense Logistics Manual (DLM) 4000.25 series of manuals, composed of multiple manuals and volumes, each supporting functionally related business processes. The provisions of the DLMs apply to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Military Departments, the Joint Staff, the Combatant Commands, and Defense Agencies. The DLMs apply, by agreement, to external organizations conducting logistics business operations with DoD including
- Non-Government organizations, both commercial and nonprofit;
- Federal agencies of the U.S. Government other than DoD;
- Foreign national governments; and
- International government organizations.
(Source: http://www.dlmso.dla.mil/elibrary/Manuals/DLM/V1/v1_Foreword.docx)
It's not a stretch to recognize that X12 transactions have enabled the management and movement of goods for the Department of Defense consistently for decades.