A Soldier inspects an M1A2 Abrams main battle tank during an issue exercise for combat configured APS-5 equipment in Kuwait; Credit: US Army
Mission Area
January 29, 2021
On Jan. 13, PEO EIS’s Global Combat Support System – Army (GCSS-Army) program received official authority to proceed with releasing its next round of capabilities to approximately 1,000 users to better manage Army Prepositioned Stock (APS).
GCSS-Army provides functional services to the business enterprise and warfighting mission areas focused on property book, supply operations, tactical maintenance, logistics management and associated tactical finance functionality, serving as the tactical financial system of record for the Army. The APS capability within GCSS-Army ensures that equipment, including tanks and other armored vehicles, is strategically prepositioned around the world. This reduces deployment response times by allowing Soldiers to hit the ground running with all the equipment they need to fight and win.
APS users will be fielded the GCSS-Army baseline system, which eliminates paper records, automates the hand-off of equipment, and enables the issuance of brigade sets — equipment needed to outfit a brigade entering theater — in 96 hours or less. When complete, GCSS-Army will subsume the legacy Army War Reserve Deployment System.
Using out-of-the-box software from the existing GCSS-Army program along with targeted business process re-engineering, the GCSS-Army team — led by product manager Lt. Col. William Reker — delivered 94 percent of the Army’s stated requirements for this implementation at a development cost of less than $100,000 and in a time span covering just five months.
Col. Robert Wolfe, project manager for PEO EIS’s Army Data and Analytics Platforms project office under which GCSS-Army is managed, briefed Army acquisition leaders Jan. 13 on the program’s cost, performance, and schedule. One of the meeting attendees — Robin Swan, director of the Army’s Office of Business Transformation — praised the GCSS-Army team’s work.
“This is a stellar example of the way we should be doing business,” said Swan.
The GCSS-Army team will now begin deploying the software and training users.