Army Knowledge Online (AKO)
Army Knowledge Online (AKO) was the U.S. Army's flagship enterprise portal, originally launched in 1999. For more than a decade it was the single sign-on entry point for soldier email, personnel records, unit collaboration spaces, and dozens of administrative tools. AKO was decommissioned during the Army's digital modernization push, and its services were redistributed to specialized successor systems.
What Was AKO?
AKO (Army Knowledge Online) sat at us.army.mil and gave every soldier, civilian, and contractor a unified login to:
- Army email accounts (
@us.army.mil) - Personnel and pay records
- Unit collaboration spaces (Knowledge Centers)
- Education and training resources
- Forms and policy documents
- Common access (CAC) authentication across DoD-wide tools
At its peak, AKO had millions of registered users and was effectively required to do daily Army business. Its sunsetting created a long, sometimes confusing, transition period in which the same services lived behind different login pages on different systems.
What Replaced Each AKO Service
| AKO Service | Replaced By | Link |
|---|---|---|
| AKO Email | Army 365 (Microsoft 365 for the Army) + DEE webmail (mail.mil) | Open → |
| AKO Personnel Records | iPerms (AMHRR) + IPPS-A (active actions) | Open → |
| AKO Pay (LES, allotments) | myPay (DFAS) | Open → |
| AKO Collaboration Tools | Army 365 Teams + SharePoint | Open → |
| AKO Career Management | Army Career Tracker + IPPS-A | Open → |
| AKO Medical Readiness | MEDPROS + MHS Genesis | Open → |
| AKO Training | ATIS Learning (formerly ALMS) + JKO + ATIA | Open → |
| AKO Education Benefits | ArmyIgnitED | Open → |
Frequently Asked Questions
What does AKO stand for?
AKO stands for Army Knowledge Online — the Army's flagship enterprise portal, launched in 1999, that served as the single sign-on entry point for soldier email, personnel records, and dozens of administrative tools before it was decommissioned.
Is AKO the same as AKO Offline?
No, and this is a common mix-up. AKO (Army Knowledge Online) was the official Army portal at us.army.mil, now decommissioned. AKO Offline (akoffline.us) is an unrelated, independent community-maintained directory that helps soldiers find where AKO's old services moved to. AKO Reload is the maintained successor to AKO Offline — neither AKO Offline nor AKO Reload is an official Army system.
Can I still log into AKO (us.army.mil)?
No. AKO was decommissioned and no longer accepts logins. Its services were redistributed to separate systems — see the replacement table above, or the full AKO login guide for exactly where each service moved.
What happened to Army Knowledge Online?
AKO was retired as part of the Army's digital modernization effort. Rather than one central portal, its functions (email, personnel records, pay, training, collaboration) were split across dedicated systems like Army 365, IPPS-A, iPerms, and myPay.
How AKO Reload Fits In
The single biggest gap left by AKO's decommissioning is that there is no longer one place to find every Army link. Each successor system lives on its own URL, and unit SharePoints fill the gap inconsistently. AKO Reload exists to be that one place — a community-maintained directory of every Army and DoD website soldiers actually need. It is not affiliated with the U.S. Army, the DoD, or the AKO Offline project.