MilPDS upgrade begins

  • Published
  • By Debbie Gildea
  • Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas --  Editor's note: This one of a series of articles to inform total force Airmen about personnel programs affected by the Military Personnel Data System upgrade occurring in March.

The Military Personnel Data System will be offline for 23 days, as of this morning, to allow the Air Force Personnel Operations Agency to upgrade and transfer military personnel data to the Defense Information Systems Agency Defense Enterprise Computing Center, Air Force Personnel Center officials said.

MilPDS is the primary records database for personnel data and actions that occur throughout every total force Airman's career. The system is also used to initiate Airman pay actions, maintain Air Force accountability and strength data and support a host of interactions with other Air Force processes and systems that rely on personnel data.

Planning and preparation for the upgrade have been ongoing for over a year as systems specialists worked to develop an implementation plan and test transfer actions before beginning the full-transfer, said Anthony Delgado, AFPOA MilPDS functional Manager.

"MilPDS is an old platform that has not kept up with the times," he said. "Because systems changes over the years have been so significant, trying to maintain MilPDS in its current state is very risky - we could lose some irreplaceable data. The only viable solution is to bring the entire system down, fully upgrade everything so that it's compatible with current technologies, and stand it all back up."

But, that option came with a host of potential problems as well, he said.

"Clearly, we couldn't just pull down the system and tell people to 'make do,' so the R12 team - with total force representatives from every affected function - developed a comprehensive plan to address how personnel actions will be accomplished during the upgrade, how those actions will be loaded after the upgrade, and more," Delgado explained. "We then provided the total force personnel community with extensive guidance to help them manage actions without MilPDS."

Critical personnel and pay processes related to accessions, reenlistments, Guard and Reserve unit training assemblies, mobilization/activation, casualty and immediate separations will continue to function during the system downtime, Delgado said.

AFPC will notify Airmen once the upgrade is complete and MilPDS is accessible. During the upgrade, Airmen who need assistance can review information on the myPers website at https://mypers.af.mil, or contact their servicing military personnel section. Information is also available on the Air Reserve Personnel Center public website at http://www.arpc.afrc.af.mil.