The sustainment brigade is designed to provide mission command for combat service and combat service support units. It can be adjusted in size to support anywhere from one to ten brigade combat teams (BCTs). A sustainment brigade has a joint capability that allows the Army to better manage the flow of logistics into the area of operations (AO) and provides support to other services for common logistics like fuel, common ammo, medical supplies, repair parts of wheeled vehicles, and so forth. A sustainment brigade is designed to operate independently in a theater of operations, in conjunction with other sustainment brigades under the command of a Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), or directly under a Theater Sustainment Command.