Intercepts

* Bandwidth luxury tax. That's what Lt. Gen. Douglas Buchholz the J6 plans as a way to relieve the strain on Defense networks that just can't seem to keep up with the demand of high-bandwidth applications. Buchholz speaking at last week's AFCEA Washington D.C.-chapter lunch said he wants to "de-appetize" high-bandwidth uses. This sure sounds like a pre-emptive strike against push technology applications that in some cases - even here at FCW - end up clogging networks by streaming Web pages to unmanned PCs.

* The Lucent cruiser? The Navy's Vivid contract allows the vendors - Lucent and GTE - to propose innovative IT solutions and Tom Earley Lucent's Vivid program manager has taken that contract about as far as it can go. My San Diego Spawar antenna site has picked up strong signals that Lucent has offered to completely upgrade the IT systems on Navy cruisers through a turnkey lease contract that includes high-speed ATM LANs commercial satellite terminals and the satellite bandwidth to hook the cruiser LANs to the shore.

I've heard Rear Adm. Stephen Johnson Spawar tactical support systems director and Rear Adm. John Gauss in the Crystal City N6 shop are pondering this extraordinary offer - which also includes I'm told an explanation of exactly what the circle in the Lucent logo really means.

* Clever acronym. Gauss heads up a team in the N6 shop working to develop an overriding IT infrastructure for the Navy which he has dubbed the Naval Virtual Intranet that provides a very interesting acronym for anyone who knows their Roman numerals: NVI. This is a test. Do you get it?

* Rugged rebound. Dick Pandolfi head of Miltope Corp. once owned the market for Army rugged computers only to lose the LCU CHS-II and Force XXI contracts. Pandolfi has now bounced back with the aptly named Phoenix Group Inc. tapped by TRW Inc. to supply sleek but rugged Applique Plus Pentium PCs for Force XXI replacing the lunchbox PCs manufactured by SAIT which is now owned by Litton/PRC Inc. Pandolfi who showcased his Force XXI gizmos at last week's Association of the United States Army (AUSA) convention at the Sheraton Arms in Washington D.C. said the dual Pentium 200 will go into all the tanks Bradley fighting vehicles trucks and Humvees used in Force XXI. Today's Applique Plus sports dual Pentium Pro 200 MHz processors and Pandolfi promises to stay current with advances in Intel architecture.

* Tanks a lot. If you need an armored vehicle the annual AUSA convention is the place to kick some tires. It also turns out that just like cars there's a big armored vehicle aftermarket. Michael Williams an engineer from the Tank Automotive Command was trying to hustle up some business promising to deliver an embedded digitization upgrade for the MIA1 featuring a touch-screen computer PLGR GPS mapping software and radio interfaces for only $100 000 per tank. Sorry no show specials and no volume discounts.