Original title: Mission command and supply chain resilience in wartime military logistics: empirical evidence from the Ukrainian Armed Forces
The study looks at how leadership and command relate to resilience in Ukrainian military logistics. Researchers surveyed logistics experts and examined links among mission commandA military approach to command that guides people while allowing them to act in changing conditions., leader relationships, planning, visibility, responsiveness, and recovery. Responsiveness was the strongest predictor of recovery, and mission command was linked to responsiveness. The analysis also found that visibility and mission command were necessary conditions for high recovery, even when their direct effects were not significant in one part of the analysis.
Imagine a household trying to get dinner ready when one ingredient is suddenly missing. The meal can only come together if someone notices the problem and people respond quickly, but quick action alone may not be enough if no one can see what supplies remain. In this paper, the missing ingredient stands for a wartime disruption, quick action stands for responsiveness, and seeing the supplies stands for visibility; mission command helps the team act, and recovery is getting the meal back on track.
Military logistics teams need supplies and operations to keep moving during wartime disruption. The findings point to a practical link: command practices that support responsiveness may also help logistics recover, while visibility and mission command may be necessary for high recovery.
The abstract reports survey evidence from 82 Ukrainian Armed Forces logistics experts, so it does not establish that the same relationships hold in other militaries or settings. The close overlap between mission command and responsiveness warrants cautious interpretation. The findings are described as consistent with perceptual evidence, not as proof that command practices cause resilience.
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Mission command and supply chain resilience in wartime military logistics: empirical evidence from the Ukrainian Armed Forces — Lasse Elvemo, Tore Listou, Iurii Hannenko — Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics — doi:10.1108/jdal-12-2025-0034
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.