Digital Government

Clemins calls for DODwide intranet

Adm. Archie Clemins, commander of the Pacific Fleet and the driving force behind the program that will allow the Navy to fight future battles using commercial networks and computers, this month called for a grander plan to build a worldwide intranet to link the three military services. Clemins said

Digital Government

Intercepts

IT21 IN THE GULF. Last week, less than two years after Adm. Archie Clemins unveiled the commercially based Information Technology for the 21st Century as the smarter, faster way to equip Navy ships with advanced communications and computer systems, the USS Enterprise battle group steamed into the

Digital Government

Navy, Lotus reach agreement

The Navy has reached an agreement with Lotus Development Corp. to purchase up to 500,000 seats of its entire suite of groupware as part of the Navy plan to build a massive, worldwide intranet that would support everything from electronic commerce to battlefield communications. The Navy has agreed t

Digital Government

Airlines' efficiency set to soar

HONOLULU Airlines next month will be able to reduce flight time and save fuel on flights across the Pacific Ocean by using satellitebased data communications to file new flight plans electronically while en route. The Federal Aviation Administration has tested the procedure, known as Dynamic Air

Digital Government

DOD weighs future comm strategy

BEDFORD, Mass. With data communications requirements expected to jump exponentially by 2010, the Pentagon may opt to develop a new global satellite system to replace its aging constellation, even though industry vendors say they are prepared to meet its requirements. Speaking at the annual Milita

Digital Government

Air Force signs volume software deal

Buying in volume pays off, according to the Air Force Standard Systems Group, which expects to save as much as $32 million over the life of a threeyear, Air Forcewide contract for Microsoft Corp. software. Under the contract, which was awarded to Lockheed Martin Federal Systems Division last week

Digital Government

Comm in combat

As part of an ongoing battle exercise this week off the coast of South Korea, the Navy is demonstrating for the first time its ability to use information technology to coordinate missile attacks and other battle activity with other services. The Navy's Fleet Battle ExperimentDelta (FBED) builds o

Digital Government

Intercepts

HOPPING OFF. My Down Under mobile unit has picked up reports that Telstra, the Australian longhaul communications company, has abandoned plans to bid as a prime on the Defense Information Systems Agency's $4 billion Defense Information Systems Network Transmission ServicesPacific contract. I'm pe

Digital Government

Being all he can be

The activeduty career of Brig. Gen. James Bryan, director for command, control and communications systems for the Pacific Command, definitely lives up to promises of the Army's ''Be all that you can be'' recruiting campaign a campaign he helped create. In the 1980s Bryan had a tour with the Army

Digital Government

EDS and Lucent pitch VTC products to Army

Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Lucent Technologies plan to offer similar suites of products on the $75 million Army Video Teleconferencing1 contracts awarded last month, but they have developed marketing plans and solutions that will allow them to differentiate their offerings. EDS, which holds

Digital Government

Army readies PC pacts

The Army continues to push for the latest PC technology at the best prices, with slightly more than $800 million worth of contracts for advanced PCbased servers, desktops and notebook computers up for grabs between now and January. The Army CommunicationsElectronics Command's (Cecom) Systems Mana

Digital Government

Double take: CIA Web sites revisit old battles

In the fastpaced World Wide Web environment of streaming video, push technology and Java animation, the Web site of the CIA (www.odci.gov) does little to attract the attention of the casual surfer with its plain graphics and textheavy offerings. But if you're looking for additional insights into

Digital Government

Intercepts

THE THREESTAR DANCE. Army Lt. Gen. Dave Kelley plans to stay another year at DISA, according to an incoming piece of ALL CAPS rocket mail from Emmett Paige Jr., former ASD/C3I. It sure made me nostalgic for the days when Paige launched rocket mails this way on a weekly basis. Because Kelley has de

Digital Government

Some Army Web sites to go dark

In the wake of its decision last week to shut down all 998 of its publicly accessible World Wide Web sites, the Army expects that some of those sites will remain offline permanently. Chris Unger, an information systems specialist who serves as Webmaster for the Army home page, said he believes that

Digital Government

Intercepts

DISA DOSIDO. Although Army Lt. Gen. Dave Kelley theoretically has a year to go in his tour as Defense Information Systems Agency director, I've picked up signals that Army Lt. Gen. William Campbell, currently the Army widget and communications chief, will succeed Kelley at Courthouse Road and s

Digital Government

Navy tech aids Swissair search

To help locate debris from Swissair Flight 111, which crashed off Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, earlier this month, the Navy has dispatched an experimental underwater minedetection system far more capable than the Navy system used for searchandrecovery operations following the crash of TWA Flight 8

Digital Government

Pentagon says attack on blood data banks 'simulated'

A Defense Department Red Team,'' not real hackers, mounted a simulated attack last year on DOD medical databases containing blood type information, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Digital Government

Intercepts

Look for Scott Randall and the Global Information and Network System team at the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Command to award the Information Technology for the 21st Century shipboard local-area network contract this week, not quite meeting its schedule, which called for an award last week. Vendors bidding on the $100 million-plus job -- Electronic Data Systems Corp., IBM Corp., GTE, Lucent Technologies and Science Applications International Corp. -- view the contract as an absolutely essential piece of business, an opinion that could lead to a lot of whining by the losers.

Digital Government

DOD to begin Iridium tests

The Defense Department plans to start operation of its gateway to the Iridium LLC mobile satellite system this week, despite glitches that will delay full commercial service until November.

Digital Government

DOD melds IT buying

Top Pentagon officials have put in motion a plan to replace a hodgepodge of information technology contracts scattered throughout the Defense Department with enterprise licensing agreements that could drastically cut DOD's software costs for all 2.2 million users in DOD.