The Automated Message Handling System (AMHS) is an automated message handling system that can be used to process, store, and disseminate legacy AUTODIN messages as well as Defense Message System (DMS) messages. The term "Automated Message Handling System" or "AMHS" has not been trademarked by a vendor, but is instead a product category that includes several systems and products created by government agencies, integrators and software companies. Examples include:
Telos Corporation's AMHS product was selected by all services as the message handling system to be used for organizational messaging throughout the United States Department of Defense. The Air Force completed transition to AMHS in November 2006. The Army has transitioned most of the CONUS organizations, the Coast Guard has completed the transition in 2008, the Navy has begun transitioning on May 2007, and the USMC selected the AMHS and began transitioning in November 2007. In addition to the DoD organizations, other federal agencies (including the DEA and FAA) also use the AMHS. The benefits of using AMHS over older versions of DMS is that it consolidates and reduces the number of Fortezza cards that contain X.509 certificates for each recipient. AMHS can also use the Virtual Fortezza Cards, or VFC's, stored on a Type 2 Cryptographic Support Server board, or T2CSS. The T2CSS is located within the actual AMHS server, reducing the inconvenience placed upon the user to keep track of a Fortezza card.