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***image1***Bringing myriad communications tasks together under one comprehensive umbrella, the 435th Communications Group Communications Control Center operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week to maintain situational awareness and tactical control over KMC networks, mission systems and flight systems.
They manage everything from satellite dishes, radar equipment, air traffic control and landing systems, computer networks, and maintenance outages.
“Today’s low manning levels, combined with the need for 24/7 command and control, network monitoring and troubleshooting demand levels of efficiency that only a hub of information can provide,” said Capt. Steven Pena, the center’s former OIC.
The CCC’s mission is to maintain awareness and operational control of the group’s resources during peacetime, contingency operations and war. They direct group resources and act as a focal point for status reporting. They also control and jointly manage networked systems as well as reacting to crises.
For example, when an outage occurs on a group-maintained system, instead of hunting down the specific communications work center, the customer can report the outage to a CCC job controller. The controllers then contact technicians from the appropriate work center, and log the job in their tracking database and in the base-wide Core Automated Maintenance System.
“Having one work center to report problems, while maintaining many specialized shops to work problems, exemplifies the tenet of centralized control and decentralized execution,” said 2nd Lt. Zach Zischang, CCC crew commander. “Streamlining reporting procedures improves the quality of information provided to group and wing leadership.”
Before jobs are tracked, they are prioritized, and all high-priority jobs are briefed daily to the group, squadron and flight commanders.
“The CCC really is the one-stop shop for maintenance management of communications in the KMC,” said Captain Pena. “With hundreds of communications systems driving critical operations for Ramstein and beyond, the CCC offers peace of mind to commanders as they stand prepared to respond to incidents large and small, 24 hours a day.”
