WLMP DROPOUTS? The battle over the Army's Wholesale Logistics Modernization Program escalated by Rep. James Talent (RMo.), who added language to the House fiscal 2000 Defense Department authorization bill that essentially puts the program on hold for two years has started to take industry casu
WLMP DROPOUTS? The battle over the Army's Wholesale Logistics Modernization Program - escalated by Rep. James Talent (R-Mo.), who added language to the House fiscal 2000 Defense Department authorization bill that essentially puts the program on hold for two years - has started to take industry casualties. Reports received here at Intercept Central indicate that Boeing Information Services (which is up for sale), Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Raytheon Co. have all decided to "no bid" the contract. This leaves only two serious players, Computer Sciences Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp., with Litton/PRC Inc. sitting on the sidelines but still a potential bidder. If this keeps up, the Army Materiel Command may have to let employees at its software centers play in the game just to get a wider range of bidders.
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JEDMICS DIAMONDS. The House DOD authorization bill also pumped $12 million into the Navy's Joint Engineering Data Management and Information Control System, a contract held by Litton/PRC, with all of the funding earmarked for integration of a hardware encryption system called DiamondTek, developed by Cryptek Secure Communications LLC, Chantilly, Va.
This one is not hard to figure out considering that two Virginia congressmen, Rep. Herbert Bateman (R) and Rep. Owen Pickett (D), sit on the House Armed Services Committee. Jackson Kemper, vice president of Cryptek, said the funding really reflected the high security delivered by the DiamondTek hardware, which has received a B2 rating from the National Security Agency. Besides keeping out the prying eyes of spies, DiamondTek also allows the Navy to segregate data on JEDMICS so that rival contractors cannot look at each other's data, as the system can "create as many as 15 million [virtual private networks]," Kemper said. That's enough to create about five VPNs for every uniformed and civilian employee of DOD.
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OFF TARGET? The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization may have a hard time getting its interceptors to hit targets, but it certainly has its mission statement act together. A recent issue of the BMDO Update newsletter - which I eagerly await every quarter - contains an article by John Collard, president of Strategic Management Partners Inc., Annapolis, Md., on how to write a mission statement in six easy steps. Hopefully, the next issue will include an article on how to develop the right process to get interceptors to hit targets.
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SADDLE UP. This week's entry in the Power Point Ranger Patch contest, from Mike Dennis at the Defense Logistics Agency, pays homage to the 1950s Richard Boone TV show "Have Gun, Will Travel." Dennis admits upfront that his submission is deliberately far from super-slick, "as I have no Power Point skills whatsoever, nor do I wish to acquire said skills.... In my humble opinion, briefings have become nothing more than Dilbert comic strips that overwhelm all but the strongest mail servers."
If you have an idea for a patch that could be worn by the ever-expanding, quad-service Power Point Ranger Corps, send it to me at antenna@fcw.com. Also, check out the PP Ranger Creed on our World Wide Web site at www.fcw.com/extra.