Digital Government

Intercepts

Another Delay in WLMP? My Fort Monmouth, N.J., antenna site has picked up mediumstrength signals that Army Cecom may delay award of the $1 billion Wholesale Logistics Modernization Program contract until Dec. 27, which should make a good postholiday present for the winner of the two remaining bid

Digital Government

DOD thanks low-tech 'code talkers' for WWII service

The Pentagon honored one of the few unbreakable forms of encryption the Commanche language, which was used by a special unit of American Indian code talkers in World War II during an award ceremony honoring Charles Chibitty, the last survivor of that elite Army unit.

People

IT fills in puzzle of Korean, Vietnam War MIAs

For years, the remains of the last 13 men killed in the Vietnam War?immortalized on the bottom of the last panel of "the Wall" in Washington, D.C.?have lain unidentified on a table in a nondescript building here at Hickham Air Force Base.

Digital Government

Intercepts

HONOLULU THE 438TON PROBLEM. The Army Signal Command shipped 438 tons of communications gear, bought during the Cold War, from Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to support peacekeeping operations in East Timor. My mobile Intercept unit, out here for the annual AFCEA AsiaPacific conference, has picked up s

Digital Government

Bases in Pacific gobble bandwidth

HONOLULU A voracious appetite for bandwidth has nearly overwhelmed a recently launched Defense Department program here to double the capacity of the cables that handle phone calls and Internet service for military personnel stationed throughout the Pacific Ocean. In April, the Defense Informatio

Digital Government

Voice-over-IP net goes live

Honolulu Companies for several years have promoted the idea of placing telephone calls over the Internet, but they have found few takers because of poor connections and even worse audio quality. Now, Nortel Networks has landed a precedentsetting contract to replace traditional telephone service

People

Vets take on Knife 31 IDs: Semper Fidelis

Randall Austin, who commanded the 2nd Battalion of the 9th Marine Regiment during the Mayaguez rescue, described the four-year effort to recover and identify the crew and passengers of the Air Force helicopter shot down during the rescue as living up to the spirit of the Marine Corps motto Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful.

People

Identities of MIAs await confirmation by consultants

The Army's Central Identification Laboratory today emphasized that it will not complete the identification process for the last combatants killed in the Vietnam War until outside review boards approve the case files developed by lab scientists and anthropologists.

Digital Government

Pacom to build digital radio net

The U.S. Pacific Command (Pacom) plans to develop interagency digital radio networks for an emergency response network to serve the federal government and state and local police and fire departments in Alaska and Hawaii making it the largest project of its kind. Pacom decided to develop the Pacif

Digital Government

Navy missile range taps Sun to prevent data loss

The Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility, which relies on advanced instruments to test missiles at a range located off a Hawaiian island shore, recently purchased a faulttolerant Sun Microsystems Inc. computer system to prevent the loss of valuable test data. The missile range, headquartered at t

Digital Government

Intercepts

NewAge Army? In the process of reinventing itself into a lighter and more quickly deployable force, the Army has decided to use the troops at Fort Lewis, Wash., as the test bed for new concepts, equipment and tactics. The Army named Maj. Gen. James Dubik to spearhead the effort and gave him a titl

Digital Government

Y2K freeze

After spraying for bugs, you don't open the doors and windows. That's the advice the federal government has decided to follow with the Year 2000 bug. Many agencies, having spent billions of dollars fixing missioncritical systems for the Year 20000 computer problem, have barred or severely restrict

Digital Government

Pentagon hit by 'World Wide Wait'

The Defense Department's exploding use of the Internet has put such a squeeze on network bandwidth that it threatens new strategies to use information technology systems to manage the Pentagon's business and fight wars. Although the Defense Information Systems Agency has more than doubled capacity

Digital Government

IETF weighing new wiretapping standards

The ad hoc group that manages the operation and future development of the Internet today will consider the adoption of new standards to make it easier for the FBI and law enforcement agencies worldwide to eavesdrop on the world's fastest growing communications medium.

Digital Government

DOD selects MCI for $4B telecom pact

MCI WorldCom last week captured one of the biggest federal telecommunications prizes, a Defense Department contract that could be worth up to $4 billion to provide service to U.S. forces operating over 52 million square miles in the Pacific, Indian and Caribbean oceans. Industry sources speculated

Digital Government

Breaking the mold

Maj. Charles Wells, developer of two online knowledgesharing projects for the Army, is not your typical Army computer expert. Wells' background, career, motivations and avocations quickly prove that few people, even in the Army, fit into a stereotype. For example, one of the musical instruments he

Digital Government

Intercepts

LONDON KOSOVO CLEAN SWEEP. Spacelink International, a small, privately held company based in Washington, D.C., but focused on Europe, has captured most of the military commercial satellite Earth terminal business in Kosovo, according to strong signals my mobile unit picked up here at TechNet Eur

Digital Government

DOD awards MCI WorldCom with wideband contract

The Defense Department has awarded MCI WorldCom Inc. a contract worth up to $2 billion to provide wideband telecommunications services to U.S. forces based throughout the Pacific and Asia.

Digital Government

Lawmakers warn Clinton: Boost Defense technology funding or else

Close to 100 members of Congress joined a bipartisan coalition urging President Clinton to boost funding for Defense Department science programs, warning him in a letter that the continued longterm erosion of defense science and technology will have a devastating impact on the future capability of the armed forces of the United States.''

Digital Government

Navy issues warning on Y2K Trojan horse

The Navy Computer Incident Response Team warned Navy and Marine Corps computer users worldwide that an email attachment masquerading as a utility to check a system's readiness for the Year 2000 date rollover could contain a virus.