To Their Destination – And Back  
By Jeff Erlichman

Transportation Information Systems (TIS) is responsible for providing and sustaining transportation and distribution IT solutions that enable the Army to move personnel and equipment from their home-station to their destination and back.

Soldiers often need to set up camp one day, then tear it down the next and move to a new location.

Responsible for providing and sustaining transportation and distribution IT solutions that enable the Army to move personnel and equipment from their home-station to their destination and back is the job of the TIS, Jeremy Heirs, TIS Product Manager told 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media in a spring interview.

To meet this mission, Heirs said PM TIS develops, fields, and maintains several applications that are used throughout the Army including:

* Transportation Coordinators’ –Automated Information for Movement System (TC-AIMS II): it provides a joint capability to automate the processes of planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling deployment, redeployment and sustainment activities worldwide.

*Automated Air Load Planning System (AALPS): a knowledge-based expert system that assists users in the complex task of planning and execution of aircraft loads for all types of deployments. It is selected as the aircraft load planning system for the Department of Defense.

*Transportation Coordinator – Automated Command and Control Information System (TC-ACCIS): an information management and data communications system used by Army Active, Guard and Reserves to plan and execute deployments.

* Transportation Information Systems – Theater Operations (TIS-TO): – is both a logistics and a command and control system that actively supports the Army Strategic Mobility Program (ASMP) and Battlefield Distribution System. TIS-TO will be completely replaced by TC-AIMS II in the near future.


Unique IT Requirements
PM TIS must ensure that the IT hardware it fields is capable of operating anytime and anywhere the Warfighter requires IT explained Heirs.

“The hardware must be capable of operating outside of the normal office environment, often times in tents and wooden huts found at Army Forward Operating Bases (FOBs),” Heirs said.  “This environment can be especially challenging for the printers that are expected to maintain a high printing volume in both high and low humidity conditions.”

Commanders also need to have In-Transit Visibility (ITV) of all of their assets throughout the entire Joint distribution process.  This starts at the time planning begins to move an asset to the time that the asset is delivered to its destination.

This requires an automated system that collects, stores, and disseminates the right information at the right time.  Robust and reliable networks make this happen.  TIS customers must be able to import and export data from a central server that is used to process and disseminate ITV information to Commanders.

If the hardware or software breaks, PM TIS must have a way of working around the clock to quickly restore the capability to the user.  PM TIS satisfies this requirement through negotiating a warranty structure that ensures the customer can gain quick access to technical support and/or replacement parts anywhere in the world.

Access Via The Web
All TIS applications can be accessed through the Internet.  However, two of them – TC-AIMS II and AALPS – are also offered in a “stand-alone” configuration where they can be installed on a standard Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) laptop said Heirs. 

This laptop configuration allows users to use these applications when connectivity to the Internet is not possible and is the configuration most PM TIS customers rely on today. To accompany the laptops, PM TIS also fields an “Interrogator Set” consisting of a label printer, portable data terminals, and a Radio Frequency (RF) interrogator that allows users to print shipping labels and scan the barcodes on those labels said Heirs.

For most of its requirements Heirs said PM TIS has found that standard COTS equipment satisfies the requirements for most of its customers.

“However, for customers that require access to PM TIS products in extreme environments,” explained Heirs. “PM TIS fields a Portable Deployment Kit (PDK) that is a self-contained structurally reinforced kit containing the standard laptop and interrogator set hardware, as well as a communications package that provides connectivity in austere environments.”