DOD weighs DMS' fate

Defense Message System Web site

Defense Department information technology officials may lift a requirement that all services use the departmentwide secure electronic messaging system — a system they maintain has been overtaken by newer technology.

Since the Pentagon first began developing the Defense Message System, a $1.6 billion program designed to support secure communications worldwide, top officials have stuck by the requirement to make it mandatory for all of DOD.

In certain areas, especially in military operations, "DMS has let us down in its present version," said Owen Wormser, principal director for spectrum, space, sensors and command, control and communications in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense. "There are those that are...saying [DMS] is not the environment of the 21st century," he said during an Aug. 8 breakfast sponsored by Input, a market research firm. Some people are pushing for the ability to use chat rooms, secure e-mail or secure Extensible Markup Language via browsers, he said.

Opponents of DMS say that DOD should move away from DMS' structured directories, Wormser said, although he stressed that it is unlikely that DOD will ever pull the plug on DMS. "I think what you will see is an opening of the door that says, 'Why do I keep doing DMS?' " he said.

But DMS advocates have come forward and addressed user concerns such as undelivered messages, he said.

"The opening of the door is important," Wormser said. "We haven't had an open, senior-level dialogue about what we are doing in a long time." The discussions should be a "comprehensive dialogue about what are we doing, why are we doing it, how much are we spending, does it add value, what performance metrics are we using. That will have to take place."

Paul Brubaker, chief executive officer of Aquilent Inc. and a former DOD deputy chief information officer, said that DMS has improved during the years, but he wonders if it makes sense to try to "turbocharge the Model T."

Deployment has taken far too long, and it often appears that the system has been overtaken by technology, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Defense Information Systems Agency confirmed that DISA officials are in discussions with Stenbit's office about overall DOD transformation efforts such as how to move "processes and capabilities to a network-centric environment, including messaging."

DISA, which manages DMS, endorses the program, said DISA spokeswoman Betsy Flood. DMS "is successfully passing missions of military messages each month," she said.

DMS "is on solid footing," according to a statement from DMS contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. "Based on positive test results," DOD approved DMS 3.0 Gold — the latest version of the software — for deployment in July.

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DMS details

* The Defense Message System, first conceived of in 1989, was designed to replace the aging Automatic Digital Network (Autodin).

* DMS messages travel over the Defense Information Systems Network, which distributes voice, video and data messages.

* DMS was designed to provide writer-to-reader message services for classified and top-secret information to all DOD users at their desktops and, if needed, to other federal agencies and contractors.

* DOD's deadline to turn off Autodin is Sept. 30, 2003.