ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. – Changes to the outbound cargo shipment process at Arnold Air Force base are on the way. The Transportation Management Office, or TMO, at Arnold will soon move away from a manual pen-and-paper method to an automated process for government cargo shipped from the installation. The Arnold AFB Logistics team feels the change will deliver benefits by streamlining materials transport requests, expediting cargo carrier selection, enhancing shipment tracking and bringing Arnold into Air Force compliance. Any shipment that must go through the government transportation system will be affected by the change. Cargo typically shipped from Arnold includes test articles, urinalysis results, small arms and X-rays. Once the new process is fully implemented, groups, facilities and offices at Arnold needing to ship these and other materials off base will complete an automated DD Form 1149 through the Logistics Tool Suite, or LTS, which is a web-based application that provides a number of tools that can be used to manage Air Force and Department of War logistics, transportation and financial functions. The DD Form 1149, or the Requisition and Invoice/Shipping Document, is used by the Department of War to record the transfers, requisitions, shipments, and receipts of government property and government-furbished property. When the form is completed, the LTS automatically generates and assigns a transportation control number. This number, along with other mandatory information such as the project code, is automatically sent from LTS to the Cargo Movement Operations System, or CMOS, with which LTS communicates. Utilized by the DoW for cargo management, CMOS automates cargo and personnel processing, documentation, movement and tracking at 240 sites around the world. “In an era where rapid deployment and logistical ability are paramount to mission success, the U.S. Air Force logistics information technology systems are proving to be a critical enabler,” said William Russell, Arnold AFB chief of Logistics and Health Services. “Among these, CMOS stands out for its ability to provide flexibility and maneuverability, allowing even remote installations like Arnold Air Force Base to tap into enterprise-level capabilities for faster and more cost-effective material movement.” Russell added the incorporation of CMOS will serve to strengthen transportation capabilities at Arnold. “It’s designed to support both regular and crisis-driven logistical needs, providing a standardized and efficient platform for managing the flow of materials,” Russell said of the system. “By interfacing with other key logistics systems such as the Global Air Transportation Execution System, CMOS ensures Arnold AFB’s seamless and integrated approach to cargo movement operations across the globe.” Upon full implementation of the new process, the Transportation Management Office will only accept DD Form 1149s generated in LTS, which may be accessed via the LTS website. Users must first be granted access to the LTS and may request access at https://lts.cce.af.mil. Once cargo information has been logged using the digital DD Form 1149, those requiring a shipment would then need to bring three hard copies of the completed DD Form 1149 and their cargo to the TMO for transport or call to schedule a pickup. Along with bringing Arnold AFB into compliance with Air Force requirements, shipments from Arnold will now be easier to track. The change helps ensure proper documentation, visibility and standardized accountability for all cargo movements. “The automated 1149s allow us to populate CMOS to provide complete in-transit visibility from the time of pickup until it’s delivered at the destination,” said Arnold AFB Logistics Manager Lynn Boles. “It provides full-in transit visibility from origin to destination, which the Air Force requires for all government shipments.” One way in which members of the Arnold AFB Logistics team feels the new process will bolster efficiency is by having the system, rather than the sender, determine the priority of a package shipment. “We’re actually going to be saving money on this system because to them, to our requestor, a lot of things are hot when they’re actually not, but a lot of people don’t know that,” said Arnold AFB Logistics Management Specialist Christina Norman. “They just want to send everything next-day air when two days ground or overnight when it could go ground transportation and be there in two days.” The system will also automatically locate a carrier able to enter Arnold AFB to pick up the cargo. “CMOS automatically puts the shipment out for bid,” Boles said. “It has the weights, the dimensions, any hazard or classified requirements that we need to meet, and selects a carrier with the negotiated Air Force rates to pick up the shipment, deliver it and get it there by the required delivery date, ensuring that the carrier can access the base, that the driver will have the appropriate credentials.” Prior to the change, the cargo transport process at Arnold involved the shipper manually completing the DD Form 1149 and bringing that documentation, along with their cargo, to the TMO. From there, office personnel would manually enter the cargo information contained on the DD Form 1149 and a TMO technician would contact different carriers, attempting to find one that could meet the required delivery date and had a driver with the credentials to access the installation. “We didn’t have very much visibility of what the requestors were actually sending to the TMO,” Norman said. “Everything was basically hardcopy, paperwork, pen and pencil, and then fat-fingered into a system or an actual physical telephone call was made to a carrier to see which carrier could come and pick up this package. “Now, the system does all the work for us. With the automated system, the shipper actually fills out one form and that form feeds into another system. When that transportation control number is generated, it automatically generates or populates that number in CMOS, and the system selects the carrier. Then we just move on to the next shipment.” According to Boles, the new process will also generate cost savings as Arnold will now have access to government-negotiated rates with carriers not previously available. “It’s going to save Arnold AFB and the Air Force money over the long run because they’re now being able to take advantage of those government-negotiated rates with the carriers,” Boles said. The new process is further expected to speed up end-of-billing-cycle invoice validation. In the past, invoices had to be validated manually by Logistics team members matching invoices to the corresponding shipment information. Now, CMOS and LTS will generate reports to ensure Arnold has been properly billed for shipments. “In the past, the validation system has been a manual validation where, in fact, we got a list of invoices and we had to validate them manually,” Norman said. “It was pen to paper, and we had to just find and match up every individual one. Now, we’ll be able to run specific reports that should be able to talk to each other and have more visibility of everything that’s going on in the Transportation Management Office.” Boles said the enhanced financial visibility will enable Arnold AFB Logistics to better predict the annual funding needed for cargo transport in future fiscal years. “One of the big things it’s going to help us do is accurately forecast our funding requirements for cargo shipments,” Boles said, adding this year will serve as the base line. “In both Operations & Maintenance and Research, Development, Test & Evaluation funding, we’re going to be able to accurately forecast what we need for subsequent fiscal years.” The Arnold Logistics team completed a test run of the new cargo process on Jan. 23. Additional tests are planned before the change is implemented across the base. “Our test shipment was a success,” Boles said. “I think in large part, when we go live with this, it’s going to depend on ‘do we have a budget? Do we have a budget to ship cargo from Arnold?’ That’s out of our hands but, once we get a budget, we’re ready to go.” Norman added a working group that meets monthly will continue to evaluate the new process, working out any kinks encountered along the way. “There’s going to be a few hiccups in the very beginning getting everybody up to par and everybody evolving into this new way of doing business but, I think, in the long run it’s going to be more efficient and more economical,” she said. Additional messaging will be disseminated to Arnold AFB personnel once the new process has been fully implemented. The change also applies to shipments requiring the completion of a DD Form 1348-1A rather than a DD Form 1149. The new shipment process will only apply to official Arnold AFB business shipments. Personal shipments or drop-offs of packages not processed through the Transportation Management Office are not permitted. Items that are personal in nature or are already affixed with a pre-paid shipping label should be taken to a local commercial shipping office or picked up by the carrier at the shipper’s facility. For additional information on the new process, contact 931-454-7804 or 931-454-7383.