Air Mobility Command news service (May 24, 2005): officials unveil new generation command and control system.

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) -- A new generation command and control system was unveiled recently when Air Mobility Command officials began fielding a new system that provides unit-level and force-level mission planning, scheduling, and tracking of all mobility airlift and air refueling missions.

The global decision support system will allow AMC officials to more effectively fulfill the global mobility mission by integrating about 40 systems into one modernized, fully integrated global AMC command and control system.

"[It] is the most complex and comprehensive [command and control] system fielded in the Air Force," said Col. Earl Matthews, AMC director of communications and information.

It combines unit- and force-level planning tools into a single system.

"Operating on unclassified and classified networks, [the system] will be AMC's one-stop-shop [command and control] system, providing unprecedented visibility of aircrews, cargo aircraft, and ongoing missions regardless of their location," Matthews said.

The implementation will continue AMC's 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 allow users to monitor and manage global mobility missions, officials said.

It will provide a common and consistent operational command and control framework across the mobility air forces.

Also, the new system incorporates a crew management application that allows mobility air forces commanders to plan and schedule aircrew training, operational missions, and other ground events in a standardized application. It also will introduce many new capabilities including a 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 said, it is the proper time to integrate these systems.

Airmen here will provide classroom and hands-on training that will take about two to three weeks per location. The system is used at Scott and at McChord Air Force Base, Wash., and is currently under way at Dover AFB, Del. Installation is scheduled to continue throughout the command through August 2006.

Brown is with Air Mobility Command Public Affairs.

1st Lt. Leslie Brown, USAF