Where to stash combat gear in the Indo-Pacific? The Army wants to know

The U.S. Army is revising the worldwide distribution of forward-deployed equipment, dubbed preposition stock, as officials weigh its utility and cost, Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, the acting Army Materiel Command commander, told Defense News.

“There are going to be changes to the [Army Prepositioned Stock] program,” Mohan said in an interview just ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington.

The effort was designed to stage weapons, vehicles, equipment and supplies at key global locations so forces can rapidly respond to crises. In recent years, the Army has moved from viewing the use of APS kit as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency situation to regularly dipping into the stocks for major training exercises.

While APS has long been a cornerstone of U.S. power