NMCI on course for Pacom

The Navy has transitioned about 37,000 seats to the Navy Marine Corps Intranet to date, and more than 2,000 seats belonging to U.S. Pacific Command (Pacom) are on schedule to get on board early next year.

Navy Rear Adm. Charles Munns, NMCI director, said the service is now doing about 25,000 seats per month on its way to a total of 350,000 seats on the single enterprisewide network that will connect the Navy's shore-based facilities.

Pacom's 2,350 seats are being reviewed, but are on schedule for transition to NMCI in the second quarter of fiscal 2003, Munns said, speaking Nov. 19 at the AFCEA International's TechNet Asia-Pacific conference in Honolulu.

Munns said that cultural, legacy and financial issues need to be resolved before the $6.9 billion, EDS-managed program is complete, but he is pleased with NMCI's progress, especially its security features.

NMCI survived worm and virus attacks that occurred in the past month at separate "echelon II" organizations, as well as the well-publicized attack on the Internet in general, Munns said. Echelon II organizations include the Naval Air Systems Command (Navair) and the Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea).

Elsewhere in the Navy's IT efforts, Munns said the service is making progress in its effort to consolidate applications by following the lead of the Marine Corps and Pacom. The Marine Corps has reduced its number of applications from 7,876 to 428, while Pacom has gone from 800 applications to 112. Munns said the Navy started with 100,000 applications and is down to 29,000. The service is working toward a goal of 2,000 applications.