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Since the days of Alexander the Great, supplying troops deployed far from home has been a concern of militaries. At the height of his empire, Alexander’s legions extended from Greece to the Indian subcontinent. Keeping his troops feed and armed was one of Alexander’s major concerns.
In the information age, militaries are increasing turning to the network to ensure troops are supplied over vast distances. The US military’s latest effort in this area is called the Global Combat Support System (GCSS), which uses information technology to increase the efficiency of logistics and provide a global picture of combat assets and supplies.
Each service has its own version of GCSS. The one operated by the Air Force was developed by Lockheed Martin. On Dec 10/09, the company received a $78.5 million bridge contract to continue its work on the system…
Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will provide continuing operations and sustainment support, service improvement and commercial off-the-shelf product life cycle management, enterprise applications services support, mission capabilities support, transition, preparation and turnover support, and capability integration support for the GCSS-AF.
GCSS-AF integrates 400 applications and data from finance, logistics, and personnel systems into one system. GCSS-AF enables the Air Force to determine the availability of resources to handle threats and maintain a high level of preparedness to deploy units.
The primary web gateway for the GCSS-AF is the Air Force Portal, which provides users worldwide with secure access to information – everything from the status of critical parts to the most recent information on USAF benefits.
The 754 ELSG/ESO at Maxwell Air Force Base Gunter Annex, AL manages the GCSS-AF contract (FA8771-10-D-0079).