System stability and scalability tests quickly scaled up to thousands of participants and back down to a handful of users.

FAIRFAX, Va. - A General Dynamics Mission Systems and U.S. government team recently tested the stability and scalability of a new, third-generation collaboration software that powers the U.S. Army's Command Post of the Future (CPOF) and offers a significant leap in operational capacity and capability for the Army. More than 5,000 participants, including geographically dispersed U.S. Army and General Dynamics representatives, and virtual participants, used CPOF concurrently to collaborate and share mission command information in real-time.

By increasing the maximum number of concurrent users from 300 to 5,000, the new third-generation software capability enables commanders to collaborate across any deployment and echelon, said Bill Weiss, a vice president of General Dynamics Mission Systems. It is a huge step for Army mission commanders to collaborate globally, securely and instantaneously on this scale.

There were two primary goals for the stability and scalability test. The first was to ensure continuous operation of CPOF while scaling up to thousands of participants and back down to a handful of users. The second was to produce system reliability data documenting synchronous collaboration across different Army echelons. Participants also shared simultaneously, data and information updates from various units and operational events.

The test was a shared effort among personnel from General Dynamics, the U.S. Army Product Manager Tactical Mission Command, the Weapons and Software Engineering Center (ARDEC/RDECOM), the Electronic Proving Ground and the Threat System Management Office, in consultation with the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Capability Manager and the U.S. Army Evaluation Center.

Fielded to the Army in 2004, CPOF provides a dynamic, interactive tool for commanders to use to help plan, prepare, rehearse, execute and assess operations across tactical networks from geographically dispersed areas. In 2007, General Dynamics was awarded a contract to expand the CPOF capabilities for commanders and their staffs to make more efficient and effective command decisions in a larger collaborative environment. The CPOF mission command application is currently a system within the Army's Command Post Computing Environment used for tactical and humanitarian missions.

General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) combined the resources of Advanced Information Systems and C4 Systems as General Dynamics Mission Systems on January 1, 2015. For more information about General Dynamics Mission Systems, please visit gdmissionsystems.com and follow us on Twitter @GDMS.

###