Released: Jul 11, 1997
The Defense Information Systems Agency and the Joint Staff shut down the WWMCCS Top Secret Support System June 30. Concurrently, the Joint Staff declared the Global Command and Control System-T as the joint command-and-control system of record for top-secret operations.
An element of the Joint Vision 2010, a Pentagon spokesman said the Global Command and Control System "represents a significant improvement over the old WWMCCS capabilities" in both secret and higher secure command-and-control capabilities.
GCCS and GCCS-T are neither a traditional acquisition program nor a grand design effort that is difficult and cumbersome to operate and procure.
GCCS replaces the older WWMCCS network of mainframe computers in use since the l970s with a client-server computer system built on modern information technology. The new technology allows greater software flexibility and reliability.
The Global Command and Control System provides combatant commanders one predominant source for generating, receiving, sharing and using information securely. It provides surveillance and reconnaissance information and access to global intelligence sources as well as data on the precise location of friendly forces.
GCCS and GCCS-T provide crisis planning, intelligence analysis and support, tactical planning and tactical execution and collaborative planning.
The Global Command and Control System was declared the single system of record for military planning operations at the end of August 1996. The spokesman said GCCS-T marks the next logical step in the evolution of systems providing full-spectrum dominance for warfighters on tomorrow's battlefield.