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AMC unveils new generation command and control system

  • Published
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, ILL. --   A new generation command and control system was unveiled last month when Air Mobility Command began fielding the Global Decision Support System 2. GDSS2 provides unit-level and force-level mission planning, scheduling and tracking of all mobility airlift and air refueling missions.

GDSS2 will allow AMC to more effectively fulfill the global mobility mission by integrating the current version of Global Decision Support System, the existing Command and Control Information Processing System, or C2IPS, the Integrated Management Tool functionality, into one modernized, fully integrated global AMC C2 system, which will exchange data through interfaces with 40 other systems.

Col. Earl Matthews, AMC director of Communications and Information, lauded the new system.

GDSS2 is the most complex and comprehensive C2 system fielded in the Air Force, he said. It combines unit and force level planning tools into a single system.

Operating on unclassified and classified networks, GDSS2 will be AMCs one-stop-shop C2 system, providing unprecedented visibility of aircrews, cargo aircraft and ongoing missions regardless of their location, Colonel Matthews added.

The implementation of the GDSS2 system will continue AMCs operational evolution to a technology-centric environment. The new system features a powerful set of decision-making tools, enterprise data and information fusion technologies, as well as integrated information displays that enable users to monitor and manage all global mobility missions.

GDSS2 will improve system data integrity and timeliness, add capabilities, maximize the interoperability between mission partners, and breakdown stovepipes by providing a common and consistent operational C2 framework across the Mobility Air Forces.

GDSS2 is intuitive, state-of-the-art technology and will make everyones job easier, according to Brig. Gen. Paul Selva, director of Operations for U.S. Transportation Command and former Tanker Airlift Control Center commander.

Also, GDSS2 incorporates a Crew Management Application that enables MAF commanders to plan and schedule aircrew training, operational missions and other ground events in a standardized application. It also will introduce many new capabilities to include a first-ever global Sequence of Events function that provides a common platform to share visibility on the generation, execution, and recovery of aircraft missions.

Currently, all of the systems are managed separately, which has become uneconomical to sustain, and with current advances in technology, AMC leaders believe it is the proper time to integrate these systems.

GDSS2 will be AMCs core C2 System ... enabling all MAF missions to be planned, resourced, executed and reported in a single integrated system, said Lt. Gen. John Baker, AMC vice commander.

A team of trainers here will provide classroom and hands-on training that will take approximately two to three weeks per AMC location. GDSS2 has been fielded at Scott AFB, McChord AFB, Wash., and Dover AFB, Del., and is currently underway at Charleston AFB, S.C., and Pope AFB, N.C.  A schedule for fielding GDSS2 to the rest of AMC is posted to the systems documentation Web site at https://gdss2support.scott.af.mil. Installation is scheduled to continue through August 2006.

Air Mobility Command News Service is a service of the Internal Division
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