Diálogo had the opportunity to speak with Chilean Navy Captain Eduardo Torres, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Logistics Department, during the U.S. Southern Command- (SOUTHCOM) sponsored Senior Leader Logistics Symposium, held at its headquarters in Doral, Florida, in early June 2024. Capt. Torres has been a key player in the development of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Logistics handbook. In addition, he chaired the handbook’s Movement and Transportation Working Group.
Diálogo: Logistics can be described as the basis for successful military operations, while regional cooperation is increasingly essential. What is the importance of activities or events such as the Senior Leader Logistics Symposium for the region’s armed forces and especially for Chile?
Chilean Navy Captain Eduardo Torres, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Logistics Department: Indeed, without logistics there are no military operations. In that sense, this seminar is very enriching because it provides new solutions or alternative logistics solutions for our forces. It is a source of information and professional enrichment. In Chile we are not exempt from the [trials of] daily life or the economic situation. In these activities we can find alternative solutions, especially when there are many demands and resources are often scarce. The seminar is a very good alternative for acquiring knowledge and experiences from all over the region.
Diálogo: Climate change and extreme weather events pose an increasing risk to the preparedness and security of the armed forces. In fact, the theme of this year’s symposium is preparedness. What are some of the lessons learned that Chile can share with its partners?
Capt. Torres: There are several very interesting lessons. Indeed, it’s a fact that we have a changing climate. We can see it in southern Chile. In our Patagonia, the melting of ice is advancing at a very fast pace; the glaciers are melting faster than they did 50 years ago. Therefore, we are in the presence of a phenomenon that, as a result of this climate change, has caused large forest fires in the last seven or eight years. This has required our Armed Forces to prepare themselves to be able to cooperate with the government in the fight against forest fires. For example, the Army and Navy have trained forest fire brigades to provide support if the resources of the government or the entity in charge are scarce. Similarly, the aircraft of the Army, Navy, and Air Force have been trained in the use of the Bambi Bucket [collapsible buckets that carry water] to fight forest fires from the air, which is also something that was not done eight years ago and is now practically the norm.
Another very good experience is the use of a guide plane in addition to a Tanker plane, which is a large DC-10 or Boeing 747 type plane that drops water at the time and most exact place possible to lower the temperature of a forest fire or extinguish a combustion source. This implies the use of these two aircraft in a coordinated manner. Normally, in this case, the lead plane is from the Navy, because it has transmission equipment that provides several simultaneous lines of communication and information. The guide plane passes over the place where the fire is to be extinguished with the Tanker plane. A Tanker operator is in the guide plane, who verifies if the approach and departure route is correct. Then he makes an approach with the Tanker plane behind him, to give him instructions on the precise place where he has to drop the water and how much water to drop. This pairing of guide plane and Tanker plane is quite an interesting maneuver.
Diálogo: In the 2023 symposium, you presented the draft of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Logistics Manual for the Western Hemisphere. What is the importance of this logistics manual and what changes or additions were made to the manual?
Capt. Torres: Much has been said about the need to have a manual that would give us a common language and procedures because we have seen, and it has also been our experience that although things seem simple it is very necessary that they be standardized. This way, the country receiving aid can be sure that what is coming in is well done, well labeled, and arrives safely in an airplane, that the cargo or resources can be moved to where they are needed and can be used. This manual creates and provides us with those two great things: language and common procedures. We have to continue working so that the procedures are the most standardized at the continental level.
Diálogo: What are the key points for the success of interoperability in logistics?
Capt. Torres: I think one of the key elements of interoperability is standardization. To the extent that we have standardized procedures, standardized material, it makes it easier for us to use those resources wherever they are needed. I think it has more to do with the standardization of the elements that are used, in humanitarian aid or firefighting, to bring relief to people in need. For example, having a standardized platform to make it easier to identify and move it from one place to another. I think standardization could be the key piece.
Diálogo: What are the must-have topics for the upcoming symposiums and for the logistics forces in the region?
Capt. Torres: I think we have look to the future, taking into consideration what the world’s experiences are in terms of sustaining military forces. We have today a conflict, a war between Russia and Ukraine, where logistics has marked crucial points to be able to sustain operations.
We have seen that, from one side and the other, sometimes operations are paralyzed, and it is because they do not have logistics. We also have another major conflict in Israel where logistics is playing a major role in sustaining the operations of the armies. In addition, something curious is happening in Yemen with the Houthis, who have attacked U.S. ships and ships from other countries sailing in those waters; from there we can perhaps gain a lot of logistics experience that can be useful to us in military operations.
So, one of these experiences would be to look to the future at what the logistics trend would be from now on, with this same base. That is to say, without logistics, without support, there are no military operations.
Diálogo: SOUTHCOM plays a fundamental role in security cooperation and disaster response in the hemisphere. How do you see the collaboration between Chile and SOUTHCOM in logistics and what opportunities exist to strengthen this relationship in the future?
Capt. Torres: I think that there is still a very big growth potential for our relationship between the Chilean Joint Chiefs of Staff and SOUTHCOM. There is help and a rapprochement, but perhaps we need to strengthen coordination a little more to reach the destinations that each of us has set as an objective. We have an extremely great potential for growth and assistance, which must be exploited and better discussed to coordinate this assistance and for it to be of mutual benefit.
