The logistics lifeline of Defense: How BDI contributes to national security

During the recent ICT & Logistics in Utrecht, one message was central: our freedom is no longer self-evident, and logistics plays a decisive role in national security. Lieutenant General Jan-Willem Maas, Commander of the Defence Support Command, outlined a confronting scenario:

Imagine NATO needs to rapidly scale up in response to increasing tensions. Tens of thousands of troops, vehicles, and supplies must be transported lightning-fast through Dutch ports, roads, and rail lines to the eastern border of Europe. But somewhere in the chain, the flow stops. Not due to physical damage, but due to a digital malfunction. A civilian partner receives no more orders, and trains stand still. Within hours, the entire supply chain grinds to a halt.

General Maas made it clear: this is not a doomsday scenario, but a real vulnerability in a hyper-connected world. A digital malfunction can have the same paralyzing consequences as a physical attack on troops.

_{Presentation by Ruud Arts and Jan-Willem Maas at ICT&Logistics}

The Netherlands as a military transit country

The war in Ukraine has underscored the Netherlands' role as a 'military transit country'. The Netherlands is NATO's crucial lifeline, thanks to our ports, infrastructure, and data centers. It's not the weapons, but the continuous supply of fuel, ammunition, food, and medical care that enables an army to function for longer than a few days.

Defence cannot guarantee this complex, civil-military logistics alone. Military readiness requires civilian capability. However, the challenge does not lie in the strength of individual logistical players, but in the connection between them.

The real vulnerability: The connection between systems

Our logistics chain is incredibly strong, but also extremely complex, consisting of thousands of systems and processes. The real vulnerability is precisely at the interface between these systems. Maas stated unequivocally: 'Those chains are strong, but the connection between them is extremely vulnerable.' In a crisis, the lack of seamless integration and the fragmentation of information lead to unnecessary time loss, which we cannot afford.

The solution is closer civil-military cooperation, the Logistics Ecosystem, where Defence enters into strategic partnerships with the business community. The core question is: what can civilian partners provide in terms of guaranteed capacity during times of crisis or conflict?

BDI: The foundation for digital trust

For this cooperation to succeed, a solid digital underpinning is necessary. Ruud Arts, Project Manager Digital Infrastructure Logistics, emphasized the finding that in every logistics chain, the information flow has the most impact on total performance. The problem is that chain partners often do not know each other beyond the first or second link, yet they depend on them.

Traditional methods for data exchange (such as one-on-one couplings or large, central platforms) are inefficient, expensive, and cause companies to lose control over their own data.

The solution presented by Arts is the Basic Data Infrastructure (BDI): a digital agreement framework that enables parties to share data securely, reliably, and efficiently

The crucial promise of BDI is: Data remains with the owner. Information will only flow when it is explicitly authorized via the agreement framework.

The four pillars of BDI in the logistics sector

The BDI agreement framework is based on four pillars, which are essential for the resilience of the logistics sector:

1. Digital Trust: Defining who you trust and how you govern this trust among chain partners.
2. Transactions: The ability to irrefutably record that an order has been delivered correctly or an event has occurred.
3. Notifications: Automatically informing parties further down the chain about relevant events, such as the delay of a shipment.
4. Data Sovereignty: The owner of the data retains control over access to their data at all times.

From 'dual use' to shared capability

By applying BDI within the Logistics Ecosystem, 'dual use'—the ability to rapidly deploy civilian resources for military purposes—becomes realizable. Questions such as: how do we utilize the port that processes containers today for military materiel tomorrow? or how do we share train capacity between civilians and Defence? can be answered through BDI agreement frameworks. The goal is simple: Let systems do the work. Let that data work for us.

General Maas concluded the session with an appeal: Building this resilience is a national duty. The most advanced knowledge resides in the civilian sector, not with Defence.

The logistics sector, supported by digital infrastructure like BDI, is central to national security. Resilience is not built during a crisis; it is built today.

_{This article is based on a report of the session 'Logistiek als levensader voor de krijgsmacht' (Logistics as a lifeline for the armed forces), originally published by Logistiek.nl.}