An Army marches on its stomach!

Welcome to my blog, This is Aswath A C of Amrita School of Business.

A thought about military logistics came to my mind when I was reading an article about the recent faceoff between India and China at Ladakh. This inspired me to write this blog with one of the most organized supply chain that happened long back in 329 BC.

After defeating the Persian king Darius, Alexander organized his supply chain that had farms and workshops to advance to Afghanistan and beyond. He established the base in city of Herat, which served as the logistical base for his army in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

 Also, the armies at the time of Alexander had a very different logistics structure, which had many carts carrying supplies including provisions and people exclusive to handle the carts. But, Alexander had a different idea; he trained soldiers to carry their own equipment and provisions. This made his army the fastest and most mobile army of that time.

Before entering a new territory, if a ruler of that place didn’t surrender, he would gather intelligence about the territory and takes a small army to attack the ruler, whereas the main army stays back at the logistical base until Alexander secure supply enough for his army. If a ruler surrendered, he would set up a supply depot with armies guarding it.

Alexander once told that “his logisticians are the first one to slay, if a campaign fails”