Advanced Systems Division, the Isis business unit responsible for military and civil aviation applications, has completed a R20 million contract that saw it upgrade the SA Air Force`s Ground Command and Control System (GCCS), one of the main components of the Air Force`s Surveillance Control and Air Defence System (SCAD). Isis Information Systems is part of the JSE Securities Exchange-listed Altech group.
Pieter Heydenrych, divisional manager of Isis`s Advanced Systems Division, said the company "packed 133 man-months of work into 10 calendar months in order to meet the implementation deadline, as the existing GCCS was fast-approaching its end of lifecycle".
"It was imperative that this upgrade was completed within the stipulated time-frame," he said.
The project included the upgrade of the system hardware, communications infrastructure and the development of the solution from a legacy platform to a PC-based Windows environment.
The new generation GCCS interfaces with the Air Picture Display System (APDS) and Current Intelligence System (CURIS). "All these different solutions, or components, have now been upgraded to a common operating environment, with a common look and feel for the operator."
The GCCS is essentially an asset management information system, which allows the chief of operations to manage and track air assets and activities, including aircraft and crew availability for operations, as well as other relevant operational management information.
"The system," said Heydenrych, "essentially manages the application of aircraft and air crews of the South African Air Force during the pre-take-off to after landing phases of a mission."
Isis is the sole supplier of this solution to the South African Air Force. While the solution runs on commercial hardware and operating systems, it includes tailor made application software developed by Isis. The first version of this software became operational during the early 1980s.
"We have been supplying and maintaining surveillance, control and air defence solutions for the South African Air Force since 1984 and are continually evolving these solutions. The current GCCS solution," said Hydenrych," has now been implemented in the field and is undergoing final operational evaluation. Once the evaluation is completed, it will become fully operational at all control centres and airbases of the South-African Air Force. This was an extremely strategic and important project for us - and the South African Air Force."
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