Key areas in history can be sited with regards the use of logistics and supply chains in a military basis. From the perspective of getting supplies from a to b, the First World War saw an advantage of effective shipping in order to supply provisions. The Second World War saw a move from trench warfare to more open combat. Army transportation and the subsequent logistics network saw the movement of personnel, equipment and provisions transported to every corner of the globe. These movements were by ship to ports in the war zones and then forwarded to supply bases. Logistics or quartermaster units distributed the supplies forward to corps supply dumps.

The 1949 Berlin Airlift saw supplies being dropped into the city of Berlin, Germany, during the Soviet blockade. During Operation Desert Storm, the Iraq War, the military logistics community achieved great performances.

More modern approaches to supply chains see the first point of the supply chain as the initial customer requirement and then the supply of the resources to satisfy the need of that customer base. The flow travels from the requirement, to the raw materials to the consumer via finished goods. This pipeline of supplying goods to all the logistics elements in a single link is called the Supply Chain.