Software for Global Combat Support

DISA recently began introducing COTS tools to its retail-tracking
and planning package, known as the Global Combat Support System,
providing increased functionality to its applications.

By Michael Burnett
 

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) recently began introducing commercial-off-the-shelf tools to its retail-tracking and planning package, known as the Global Combat Support System (GCSS), providing increased functionality to its applications and demonstrating the utility of its strategic server enclaves.

In so doing, DISA has introduced increased capabilities to GCSS version 6.0 before the software officially migrates to v. 6.1 in June, according to Paula Friedman, GCSS program manager.

“The architecture today allows us to be able to make small changes and not have to develop and install the traditional block installation capabilities. That’s largely also because of the strategic server concept. As we develop small increments of capability, then we can install them immediately,” Friedman explained. “We are moving toward a more agile development methodology.”

The increased flexibility enables the GCSS program office to meet its goal of rapidly delivering capabilities to its customers. Beginning in February, GCSS personnel started month-long “sprint” cycles to introduce new small releases of software upgrades to various aspects of GCSS. The GCSS office uses agile programming techniques, employing daily six or seven scrums—iterative incremental processes of software development.

“We have people assigned to these scrums. They talk about what they accomplished the day before, what they are accomplishing today and any issues,” Friedman described. “The idea is to do this very rapidly. Issues do not sit out there for hours or days. They must be resolved within in an hour. The only way we can do this is to step forward and do it. We evolve the process and learn our lessons. The test community and DOT&E [director of operational test and evaluation] are engaged with us to help us evolve this process.”

The GCSS program office already has begun limited user assessments to gain feedback on the incremental changes as they are introduced in order to prepare for operational tests of GCSS v.6.1 in May. The user assessments alert the program office to any problems immediately, so Friedman anticipates a flawless operational test.

Supply Applications

GCSS provides a bundle of applications that enable warfighters to plan for and monitor their supply chain.

The applications include a query tool that checks inquiries against authoritative data sources. The system itself stores no data, but Joint Staff Logistics (J4), the functional sponsor of GCSS, provides authoritative national sources as well as service sources for data access.

Mindful not to overlook use of outside resources available to it, DISA has employed the Palanterra mapping capability developed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The agency has further developed data layers to overlay on the NGA maps, allowing warfighters to track their supplies or to project their location.

“In the old days, they had acetate and a basic map and laid acetate over top of it and drew lines of communication—like roads and rails—over it,” Friedman recalled. “They put another acetate over that, and it might have icons for buildings. We can actually provide those data layers dynamically to the Palanterra map. That gives them visualization of where they are in the world and visualization of where fields and seaports are for assets coming in.”

Another tool provided by GCSS is a knowledge-management system, which is a COTS application called Vignette. Vignette provides file-sharing collaboration capabilities to warfighters, who can create public or private folders and subscribe to document updates.

The GCSS Electronic Battlebook is another capability that serves as a commander’s daily briefing book. The briefing book updates all users on command activities and enables sharing and collaboration.

GCSS also offers the Watchboard, a capability that allows warfighters to monitor critical items. Military personnel can set thresholds indicating the amounts of specific supplies required on hand. When those amounts drop to any degree, the system will begin to alert users with a color-coded status to inform them to order more supplies as needed.

A tool called the Order of Battle permits customers to build a hierarchy of required units to support specific operations. In addition, the Joint Engineering Planning and Execution System provides operational planners with the ability to determine how they can support a plan in an area of responsibility along with supplies they would need to bring with them, what they would need to order, and how much that would cost. Users also can use the Joint Engineering Planning and Execution System to see the flow of supply units and where they are going.

The GCSS office is developing an additional capability called the Joint Supply Management Module, which would allow commodity managers to share information and monitor their supply status.

The capabilities are all in the GCSS system, where they interact and interoperate in one package.

The Joint Requirements Oversight Council approved GCSS requirements, which have been incorporated in a capabilities development document, this past December.

“We are delivering capabilities to the joint logistics warfighter that allow them the ability to plan, execute and control joint logistics operations. We do have a visibility for assets that are in storage and in transit so that they can predict what is coming into the theater and how they are going to distribute the capabilities out to the AOR,” Friedman stated.

Net-Centric Evolution

GCSS began its life as a mission application on Global Command and Control System-Joint. Over time, it grew and became a net-centric, Web-based program utilizing thin client architecture. Two DISA locations support strategic servers that power the system.

“Because it’s browser-based, once we do an upgrade on the servers, then you simply see the upgrade. If we change the URL, then you just get a new URL. New capability and functionality become available to you,” Friedman noted.

GCSS employs public key infrastructure technology to certify user identities as they log in to their individual accounts. The Joint Staff J3 Directorate provides users with the accounts they require to access the GCSS system.

GCSS in turn accesses a number of critical databases, such as the Global Transportation Network and Asset Visibility, to provide its users with a view of supplies in the pipeline. GCSS also provides joint operations plans and information along with service readiness information.

“That gives them collectively access to a lot of data. Our job is to make sure that data is presented to them in such a way that they can take action on it,” Friedman remarked.

Friedman recently visited Camp Arifjan in Kuwait to meet with the Army’s 1st Theater Sustainment Command, which has responsibility for moving supplies through its theater of operations. There, the commander for Central Command’s Deployment and Distribution Operations, along with other generals, received a demonstration of GCSS.

“During our trip to Kuwait, we received commitments from five generals to help us to shape GCSS to first deliver capability that supports the process of intra-theater distribution,” Friedman reported.

GCSS depends on such commitments to ensure that it provides users with the capabilities required to support their business processes. Once it has provided support for those processes, the program office can move on to providing decision support tools, intelligence agents and the like to help make supply chain monitoring more predictive. The goal is to work interactively with customers to make GCSS user-friendly and to help it meet their needs.

“We often hear, at these distribution nodes, they will wake up one morning and they have 50 crates sitting on your doorstep when you didn’t know they were arriving,” Friedman said. “We want to provide good functionality that helps them to see it before it arrives, to be able to determine whether they have the right resources on hand to move the stuff, and to be able to plan for that movement, then to monitor it so that it gets to the customer, who is the warfighter at the pointy end of the spear.”

The program office must be careful not to deliver too much capability too quickly, however, Friedman cautioned.

“We have to ask if we have delivered a Cadillac when in fact they only wanted a VW,” Friedman quipped. “We have given them a lot of capabilities and access to a lot of data along with some tools that are intuitive with some that may not be as intuitive as we would like them to be.”

The GCSS program receives direction from the J4 Directorate to find the way forward on providing those capabilities.

Capitalizing on Innovations

The GCSS program office puts heavy emphasis on a motto made popular by outgoing DISA Director Lieutenant General Charles Croom: “Adopt before you buy and buy before you create.”

GCSS is a major defense acquisition program, classified as an Acquisition Category I program. However, it’s a fairly small program from a funding perspective, Friedman acknowledged. That inspires efficiencies in which GCSS will capitalize on innovations introduced by other programs.

“GCSS has largely had a reputation for stepping out on the leading edge. To the extent that we can, we stay in touch with where some of our sister programs are in their acquisition life cycle or development life cycle,” Friedman commented.

So Friedman and her team of have incorporated capabilities from Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES), for example, such as its e-collaboration service, and plan to add the NCES Defense Connect Online service.

“We are looking at content staging to see if there are any efficiencies to be gained there. As the NCES enterprise services are available, we will piggyback off those to the extent that we can,” Friedman noted.

“We don’t have any dependencies on anybody, and we continue to move forward,” she added. “Our architecture helps us. We are not a client-server architecture; we are in a real net-centric service-oriented architecture environment.” ♦