INTERCEPTS

Ready for some DISA-wear. Those wonderful DISA enlisted folks who brought the world the much-prized DISA Christmas ornament have now come out with a clothing line, with sales dollars going to help families. Act now, and you could be the first on your block with a DISA T-shirt ($16.75), polo shirt ($23) or what was described as a "very snazzy" DISA windbreaker ($60). All, of course, are emblazoned with the DISA logo. The Interceptor plans to get one of the snazzy blazers. To obtain any of the above items, contact Air Force Master Sgt. Dennis Heath at DISA, (703) 607-6040. Just think: If the DISA enlisted folks come out with a line of plastic storage containers, they could call it DISAware.

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DT V on the launch pad. Look for ordering on the Air Force DT V contracts, held by Hughes Data and Zenith Data Systems, to start July 8, pending successful completion of acceptance tests by products from both manufacturers. Both vendors plan to use the World Wide Web to disseminate catalogs, which should speed up the ordering process somewhat.

"We're ready to go electronically. We're just waiting for a go-ahead from the Air Force," said Pat Gallagher, ZDS' sales veep.

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DISN doings. According to signals picked up on Capitol Hill, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) continues to push DISA hard to accept a single integrated bid (SIB) for the multiple DISN contracts, a strategy advocated by AT&T in practically every forum except the World Court in The Hague. While DISN PM Col. Marlin Forbes has been the point man for DISA on the Hill, the Interceptor hears DISA has decided to send deputy director Maj. Gen. David Kelley to brief Mark Forman, a key staffer on the Governmental Affairs panel.

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Don't lose the focus. That's the message Kelley delivered to the interceptor last week: "We may be losing sight of where we're going." In the midst of all this jockeying, Kelley said the goal still is to use competition to provide the most advanced technology to warfighters at the lowest possible cost. DISA already has proven this works, Kelley said, citing a recent upgrade to the Oahu, Hawaii, network. The upgrade used OC-3s provided by Oceanic Cablevision in competition with GTE, which resulted in a 90 percent cost savings as well as a leapfrog in technology from the older long-haul system on the island.

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Big bucks. Kelley said any delays past June of 1997 in switching to DISN from the AT&T DCTN network will cost DISA $8 million a month, "and that's real money." Though AT&T has maintained that an SIB could save DISA $1.5 billion, Forbes said AT&T has "never submitted any documentation" of how the company could achieve such savings. Forbes added that the most explicit explanation of the $1.5 billion was in an Op-Ed piece former AT&T Defense Network honcho Harry Carr wrote for Federal Computer Week. Always glad to be of service.

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Just wild about Harry. AT&T, our K Street interceptor site reports, has tapped former Air Force three-star Harry Goodall to succeed Carr by July 8. He'll probably have the platoons of lobbyists fall out in formation for review.