Navy chief confident on NMCI

Navy Secretary Gordon England said he remains steadfastly in support of the Navy Marine Corps Intranet and said the project must overcome the recent holdup over the level of testing it must undergo.

"We're determined to continue," England said Aug. 13.

"While there are hurdles and issues and concerns, there are a lot of people like myself who know we have to make this successful, and we're working hard every day to make sure that happens," the Navy secretary said following a speech at the Naval-Industry R&D Partnership Conference at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.

"It will be successful," he added.

Officials from the Navy, the Pentagon and the Office of Management and Budget have had ongoing discussions about the testing issue, which England said is the project's biggest hurdle right now. However, he said he is increasingly sure there will be an adequate resolution.

NMCI is the Navy's effort to outsource its information technology infrastructure, with Electronic Data Systems Corp. as the prime contractor. Lawmakers gave the Navy the go-ahead for NMCI, but they stipulated a "strategic pause" at 15 percent of the seats covered by the contract, or about 42,000 desktops.

The Navy is looking to move beyond that strategic pause. But Congress said that the Defense Department chief information officer must sign off on NMCI before it can proceed. Pentagon officials have been pushing for a more extensive testing regiment.

If the issue is not resolved by the end of the fiscal year, the Navy will have to pay EDS even if the company is not allowed to roll out seats. That could cost the Navy as much as $728 million in fiscal 2002.

Meanwhile, England told the conference that he supports the Defense Department's effort to increase spending on research and development in science and technology to 3 percent of the total DOD budget.

However, he said that the money must be used to develop future capabilities and not simply fix existing problems. Furthermore, the money needs to go to engineers and scientists and not be consumed by overhead.

The Navy must also work to ensure that it spends its scarce resources to augment work going on in the commercial sector, not compete with it.