Most logistics systems in use today were designed for a world that plans in weeks and reports in days. Sense and Respond Logistics is built for a world that changes by the hour.
It’s an operating model that uses near real-time data on asset condition, location and usage to detect problems early and act on them before they affect an operation, rather than discovering them after the fact through a delayed report. It’s the model behind Hammerstone’s ReadyFleet™ and D-JMILS platforms, and it was proven in the field at Project Convergence Capstone 5 in 2025, when it gave Australian, US and UK forces a shared logistics picture under exactly the conditions it was designed for.
From static planning to continuous sensing
Traditional logistics and Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) planning is built around fixed points in time: a maintenance schedule set months or years in advance, a stock report generated weekly, a resupply plan built on assumed usage rates. Between those points, logistics managers and commanders are working from a picture that is already out of date.
That gap is where problems hide. A vehicle’s condition changes before its next scheduled service. A shipment is delayed before anyone downstream knows to expect it. An asset fails before anyone flags it as at risk.
Sense and Respond Logistics closes that gap by replacing fixed reporting points with a continuous flow of data. Instead of asking “what did we plan for?”, it asks “what is actually happening, right now, and what does it mean?” That shift, from periodic and retrospective to continuous and current, is the core difference between Sense and Respond Logistics and the traditional approach to logistics.
The five-stage cycle
In practice, this runs as a continuous cycle:
- Sense – capture real-world data on identity, condition, usage and location from assets, platforms and supply chains.
- Understand – integrate that data into a coherent picture of logistics and sustainment status.
- Decide – use analytics to prioritise actions, forecast demand and manage risk.
- Respond – adjust maintenance, resupply, tasking or sustainment plans before issues escalate.
- Improve – feed outcomes back into planning and engineering to reduce burden over time.
A full breakdown of the technologies behind each stage, HUMS, VIMS, UID/AIT, and Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM+), is covered on the Sense & Respond Logistics capability page.
Logistics C4I: the command layer Sense and Respond Logistics feeds
Sense and Respond Logistics generates the data. Logistics C4I is the framework that gets that data in front of the people making decisions.
C4I (short for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence) is the framework military forces use to plan, direct and coordinate operations. Logistics C4I extends that framework into the sustainment domain, so commanders and planners understand not just where their forces are, but what those forces can sustain, for how long, and at what risk.
That distinction matters, because a logistics system that only senses and reports is still just a better dashboard. One that feeds directly into command decision-making, alongside operational and intelligence data, is what allows an organisation to anticipate demand, adapt to disruption and sustain capability over time, rather than reacting once a shortfall is already visible. As distributed, high-tempo operations become the norm rather than the exception, this connection between logistics data and command decision-making is what will separate organisations that can sustain themselves under pressure from those that can’t.
Where the “sense” data actually comes from
It’s worth being specific about this, because “real-time data” can sound abstract until you know what’s generating it.
Hammerstone’s D-JMILS (Digitalised Joint Modular Intermodal Logistics System) is purpose-built for the point in the supply chain where visibility is traditionally weakest: while assets and supplies are actually moving. Using AIT and UID tagging designed to function inside containers and metallic environments, where standard RFID fails, D-JMILS identifies assets, senses their location and condition in transit, and feeds that data into the broader logistics picture, rather than relying on someone updating a system once a shipment arrives.
ReadyFleet™ then fuses that in-transit data with condition and usage data from HUMS and VIMS sources, and delivers the combined picture to the enterprise and command systems that act on it. Neither platform replaces what an organisation already runs.
Extending SAP and SitaWare, not replacing them
This is a deliberate design choice, not an afterthought. SAP is the backbone of logistics, maintenance and financial management for many Defence and industrial organisations, but it was never designed to ingest real-time data from deployed assets or contested supply chains on its own. Hammerstone bridges that gap by connecting SAP, and command systems such as Systematic’s SitaWare, to edge and operational data sources, turning SAP from a transactional system of record into a decision-enabled logistics platform.
The same principle applies across the board: Sense and Respond Logistics is built for incremental integration, not rip-and-replace. Details on the SAP and SitaWare integration are on the SAP & Cumulocity Integration page.
Proven at Project Convergence Capstone 5
None of this is theoretical. It was tested under coalition conditions at Project Convergence Capstone 5 (PC-C5), a US-led experimentation exercise held at Fort Irwin, California in March 2025, bringing together around 140 Australian Army personnel alongside US, UK, Canadian, New Zealand and French forces.
The logistics problem PC-C5 exposed was real and specific. As Captain Shane Allen of 17th Sustainment Brigade described it, one scenario involved a Nepalese driver operating a UK vehicle, carrying an Australian container roll out platform (CROP) system, inside a French ISO shipping container. Tracking that single asset in real time, across four nations’ equipment and personnel, is exactly the kind of problem manual reporting cannot keep pace with.
Hammerstone deployed ReadyFleet™ and D-JMILS to give Australian, US and UK forces a shared Logistics Common Operating Picture, with in-transit visibility of stores and ammunition, integrated with Systematic’s SitaWare Battle Management System, and operating across both commercial bearers and tactical radio networks as connectivity degraded.
As Hammerstone General Manager Matt Hanlon described the underlying capability, it delivers “a comprehensive deployed logistics management system that operates in DDIL environments, improving situational awareness and decision support from tactical to strategic levels.”
Mark Gainsford, Vice President for Business Development at Systematic Australia, described the result as demonstrating the enhancements that come from collaborative engineering between the two companies’ teams.
Edward Rossiter, Solution Engineer at Systematic Australia, went further, noting that integrating SitaWare with Hammerstone’s logistics environment was “inherently very easy”, a reflection of SitaWare’s architecture being built for exactly this kind of third-party interoperability.
For organisations evaluating logistics digitalisation, DDIL performance under exactly these conditions, disconnected, degraded, intermittent, low-bandwidth, isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the threshold requirement. PC-C5 is the evidence that Sense and Respond Logistics, as Hammerstone delivers it, meets it. The full PC-C5 case study covers the deployment in detail.
Who this applies to
Sense and Respond Logistics was proven in a Defence coalition context, but the underlying problem, assets dispersed across a complex supply chain, decisions made on stale data, isn’t unique to Defence. It applies equally to government agencies running remote or deployed infrastructure, mining, oil and gas operators, and prime contractors delivering through-life sustainment outcomes, anywhere the cost of not knowing what’s happening is high.
As Matt Hanlon explained in an interview on 4BC Radio, Brisbane:
“It’s all about answering the questions: where’s my equipment? What condition is it in? What’s available for tasking? Will it continue to operate for the duration of that task profile? And those questions are equally relevant to Defence as they are to industry. We use a range of technologies, and we’ve developed our own software systems that provide that information and that awareness to trade or Defence users, to be able to make decisions in real time about the status of their equipment and forces.”
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Sense and Respond Logistics different from traditional logistics?
Traditional Logistics runs on fixed planning cycles, scheduled maintenance, periodic stock reports, and static resupply plans. Hammerstone’s Sense and Respond Logistics replaces those fixed points with a continuous flow of condition, usage and location data, so decisions are based on what’s happening now rather than what was assumed weeks earlier.
What’s the difference between Sense and Respond Logistics and Logistics C4I?
Sense and Respond Logistics is the operating model that generates and acts on real-time logistics data. Logistics C4I is the command and control framework that connects that data to operational and intelligence decision-making at a command level.
Does it require replacing systems like SAP or SitaWare?
No. Hammerstone’s approach connects and extends existing enterprise and command systems rather than replacing them, so organisations can adopt Sense and Respond Logistics incrementally without disrupting systems already in place.
Is there proof this works outside a controlled demonstration?
Yes. At Project Convergence Capstone 5 in 2025, ReadyFleet™ and D-JMILS delivered a shared logistics picture for Australian, US and UK forces in the field, under coalition conditions and DDIL connectivity, not in a lab.
Sense and Respond Logistics isn’t a single product or a system you switch on. It’s a decision to stop running logistics on a plan built weeks ago, and start running it on what’s actually happening right now. For organisations moving assets through remote, contested or fast-changing environments, that decision is what determines whether logistics is a source of risk, or a source of advantage.
Ready to see how Sense & Respond Logistics could apply to your operation? Talk to us.
External sources
- Australian Department of Defence — Media Release: “Australian Army experiments with future warfighting concepts”, 8 April 2025
- Australian Department of Defence — “Converting Brain Power to Fire Power”, 26 May 2025
- Systematic A/S — “Systematic teams with Hammerstone to boost Australian Army logistics”, March 2025
Related reading
- Sense & Respond Logistics — the full capability page, including technologies and FAQs
- Project Convergence Capstone 5 (PC-C5) case study
- D-JMILS
- ReadyFleet™
