Pentagon gives NMCI go-ahead

The Navy's massive initiative to create a unified network across more than 400,000 shore-based seats received a major boost today when Pentagon officials gave the project the approval to continue.

John Stenbit, Defense Department chief information officer, and Michael Wynne, deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and technology, approved the decision to continue with the $6.9 billion Navy Marine Corps Intranet.

Under an agreement between Pentagon and Navy officials, the Navy was permitted to roll out about 60,000 seats as a test of the feasibility of the project. The decision today, termed "Milestone One," allows the Navy to order an additional 100,000 seats.

"We have achieved the milesetone. We are off to order another 100,000 seats," said Rear Adm. Charles Munns, who has been intensely focused on the Milestone One decision since he was named NMCI director in February. "It was a significant milestone today."

Munns has said once NMCI passed the Milestone One mark, he would focus on establishing a schedule for rolling out the remaining seats across the Navy and Marine Corps.

NMCI is a huge desktop outsourcing contract that seeks to use a performance-based contract to create incentives for the vendor to meet set service-level agreements.

Despite today's decision, the Navy still has significant task ahead to roll out seats at a hurried pace.

In the 17 months since the contract was awarded, NMCI has been plagued by the perception that the project was off-track. Navy officials acknowledge that the effort is behind its original schedule, but they note that the delays were beyond the Navy's or EDS' control. EDS is the lead vendor on the NMCI Information Strike Force, the group of companies assuming responsibility for the Navy's shore-based network.

One of the largest problems has been the scores of legacy applications that had to be reviewed before they could be put on the more-secure NMCI network. NMCI will eliminate the hundreds of separate networks that currently exist, some of which have little or no security measures on them at all.