[1] In September, 1961, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara sent a memorandum to President John F. Kennedy, recommending the creation of an independent organization that could provide logistics management services and related research to the federal government.

The following year, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Howard Taft IV designated LMI as a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), precluding it from competing with profit-seeking firms.

Significant growth, coupled with funding caps imposed by Congress on FFRDCs in the 1990s, proved burdensome, however, and in 1998 LMI was returned to its initial status as a not-for-profit.

[6] In 2008, LMI purchased Jasmah Consulting, which was reorganized as the Intelligence Programs group within the organization's existing infrastructure.

In 2021, LMI acquired Suntiva, a digitally based business transformation company focused on public health and defense and headquartered in Falls Church, VA.[10] In 2022, LMI acquired Synaptech, which creates digital engineering, modeling, and simulation software for the national security and space industries.