DVIDS – News – NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville supports presidential priorities in SOUTHCOM

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When the Trump administration designated international drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations last year, it directed the Department of War to conduct counter-narco-terrorist operations across the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, prompting a rapid surge of joint naval forces into the region with limited advance planning and minimal existing logistics infrastructure.

Since August 2025, Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Jacksonville has provided logistics, contracting and fleet support to joint forces training and operating in Puerto Rico.

NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville operational logistics planners implemented a contingency logistics framework to sustain the high-tempo naval operations in Puerto Rico. The command simultaneously supported 18 deployed units, including a carrier strike group, an amphibious ready group, a Marine expeditionary unit, multiple surface combatants and Military Sealift Command combat logistics force ships.

“The sustainment operation in Puerto Rico has developed into a comprehensive network consisting of multiple commands leveraging the contract arm of FLC Jacksonville across the island of Puerto Rico,” said Lt. Cmdr. Josh Miller, operational logistics planner assigned to FLC Jacksonville and attached to U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet. “Collectively, these sustainment efforts extended operational reach and resulted in the Navy’s ability to conduct various operations and missions in support of the national tasking.”

By the end of 2025, the command team also facilitated the movement and delivery of nearly 10,000 high-priority materiel shipments and nearly 500,000 pounds of mail to ships operating in theater, supporting readiness and mission execution.

To address subsistence challenges and shorten supply lines, the command worked with Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support and Defense Logistics Agency Distribution to use an established continental United States-to-Puerto Rico barge delivery route. From November through December, the pipeline enabled the delivery of more than 3,000 pallets of food and essential supplies into theater for storage and onward transportation to deployed ships.

The command also coordinated fuel sustainment for more than 130 aircraft and 18 ships. With no ground-based Defense Fuel Stock Point available in theater, the team secured a commercially leased tanker to serve as a mobile fuel resupply platform supporting combat logistics force ships.

Since the mission began in mid-August, the command’s contracting team executed 236 contract actions totaling more than $34 million. Despite limited staffing and a compressed timeline, the team supported a 690 percent increase in port visits over historical averages, including 68 ship husbandry port visits valued at $24.7 million.

“The volume of contracts work has been consistently heavy for months,” said Teresa Kelly, NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville Contracting Department deputy chief. “The noticeable change has been with the efficiencies gained by doing the same process over and over at a high volume. The Contracting Fleet and Expeditionary team’s success is credited to their ability to communicate with each other, the customers, and the wider comptroller and vendor base communities.”

The contracting team awarded contracts to establish forward logistics hubs across Puerto Rico, including warehouse operations at Fort Buchanan, subsistence storage and distribution services, and third-party logistics support for materiel processing at the Port of Ponce. Prior to the establishment of the subsistence pipeline, afloat forces relied on subsistence-in-kind ordering through the Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract vehicle, with $2.8 million in contracts awarded to support ships operating in theater.

NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville also tapped its reserve component to support the operation. The reserve component coordinated deployment of NAVSUP’s Enterprise Logistics Response Team to Puerto Rico according to Lt. Cmdr. Darius Rawls, NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville Fleet Logistics Support Department director.

“The NAVSUP FLCJ reserve component has been an integral partner in ensuring that the forward deployed ships received the support required to sustain this operation,” said Rawls.

Naval Station Mayport, Florida initially served as the primary logistics hub. NS Mayport conducted eight combat logistics force in-port replenishments, delivering 3,200 pallets of supplies to deployed forces.

Shifting the primary logistics hub from NS Mayport to Puerto Rico reduced resupply cycle times from 12 days to five days, improving responsiveness and increasing on-station availability for naval forces supporting U.S. Southern Command.

NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville provides supply support services to Fleet units as assigned and performs such other functions as may be directed by NAVSUP. Through NAVSUP transformation initiatives, NAVSUP FLC Jacksonville has evolved from a local storefront operation with several remote regional sites to a unified and decentralized single point provider of supply chain and logistics products and services for all Naval activities throughout Navy Region Southeast, from Texas to Cuba. For more information, visit https://www.navsup.navy.mil/NAVSUP-Enterprise/NAVSUP-FLC-Jacksonville/.