4-209. Disaster response operations, in particular, depend on flexible and effective sustainment. Success depends on unity of effort with federal, state, and commercial partners; continuous coordination is critical. Disaster response places stress on the logistic system because it needs to respond very rapidly and sometimes in an austere environment. Sustainment will often require resources from outside the disaster area, since local supply and transportation within the operational area may be dysfunctional. Within the homeland, sustainment benefits from excellent infrastructure (outside the disaster area), which allows for a greatly reduced logistics footprint. However, it also means that the challenges of sustaining the force are very different from stability tasks.