Intercepts

WLMP BIDDING CLOSED. The Army has closed bidding on its besieged billion-dollar-plus Wholesale Logistics Modernization Program. I hear that only Computer Sciences Corp. and Raytheon Co. submitted offers on a project that could stay tied up for years by Congress—which is willing to cut jobs anywhere but in any of the 435 congressional districts—and by appeals to the Army Secretariat by the National Federation of Federal Employees, namely Local 1442 in Chambersburg, Pa., headed by John Morris.

Charles Jack Robertson, the Army Communications-Electronics Command's WLMP contracting officer, said four challenges to the Army's A-76 waiver on the project have been filed with Maylon Apgar, assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment. (Folks in Intercept-land will be delighted to know that Apgar is the fourth in a long line of Maylon Apgars.)

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LONG-DISTANCE WARS. MCI WorldCom expects to grab the lion's share of DOD international long-distance voice business, according to Diana Gowen, pooh-bah of the company's Defense unit. DISA has extended MCI's International Switched Voice Service contract (ISVS)—a vehicle let so long ago that my now 6-foot, 1-inch son Brian was only three feet tall at the time—on a month-to-month basis as DISA transitions to the company's FTS 2001 contract. Once the transition is complete, Gowen said, "DOD users will be able to realize significant cost savings" over ISVS.

This proposition does not include another logical candidate, GSA's ID3 contract, held by AT&T Government Markets. My civilian Interceptor buddy and FCW reporter Brad Bass reports that AT&T Government takes exception to this neat scenario, and AT&T Government plans to respond to the DISA notice extending ISVS by arguing that ID3, and not the MCI contract, should be tapped for the job. Nothing like a telecom fight.

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BIG SECURITY BUCKS. The House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), passed its version of the fiscal 2000 Defense appropriations bill last week, but not in time to post a report for our vast staff here at Intercept Central to mine for IT nuggets. But the committee added $400 million to the Pentagon's information security account, including $150 million targeted specifically for information assurance initiatives—enough to excite everyone with a pet firewall project within thousands of miles of the Beltway.

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ASC COMMAND CHANGE. My Fort Huachuca antenna site has picked up a medium-strength signal that Maj. Gen. Charles Sutten, commander of the Army Signal Command, plans to retire soon. I understand the logical candidate for the job is Brig. Gen. William Russ, who currently heads the program and architecture shop in the Army director of information systems for command, control, communications and computers office. This may relieve the folks over at DISA headquarters on Courthouse Road, who viewed Sutten as a threat, eclipsed only by hackers, because of his attempts to build Army networks in an end run around DISN.

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GONE CANOEING. I'm off for the next two weeks along with Mrs. Interceptor on a two- week canoeing and camping vacation down south on the Chesapeake Bay, where I plan to have zero electronic interface with the world—a blessed relief considering the stream of e-mails I continue to receive asking for more information about the $2 billion Navy Marine Corps Intranet. As a last public service before going on vacation, here once again is the new N/MCI URL: c4iweb.spawar.navy.mil/nmci/