Digital Government

Troops at Home With COTS Hardware, Software

Visit practically any U.S. unit in Bosnia, Croatia or Hungary whether it's doing business out of a tent, a trailer or a shotup office building and in one quick glance you'll see anything from a handful to a roomful of commercial offtheshelf computers and workstations. From the NATO Combine

Digital Government

Bosnian Mission Demands Most Complex Network Ever

Top U.S. and NATO command and control chiefs for Operation Joint Endeavor did not set out to build the most complex communications network ever fielded, but they ended up doing just that. Tactical, geographic and political factors all contributed to the building of this complicated pipeline that li

Digital Government

Army Fields Advanced Telemedicine Network

LANDSTUHL, Germany The Army is fielding the most advanced telemedicine system in history to provide medical care to U.S. forces deployed in Bosnia and Hungary for Operation Joint Endeavor. According to Lt. Col. Tom Semarge, biomedical information systems officer for Landstuhl Regional Medical Ce

Digital Government

Intercepts

Downsizing in the desert. A massive Army reorganization due for announcement in the next two weeks calls for the transfer of the HQ of the Army Information Systems Command, headed by Maj. Gen. Charles Sutten, from Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to Fort McPherson, Ga. The "Force XXI Reorganization" plan al

Digital Government

Concept Automation, Cordant win NTOPS

Concept Automation Inc. and Cordant Inc. last week won a longawaited Navy contract for 60,000plus PCs that will provide users with Pentium PCs on their desks and 486based laptops. The Naval Information Systems Management Center (NISMC) valued the award of the New Technology for Office and Portab

Digital Government

Desktop V award date slips

If you were waiting for the award of the giant Air Force Desktop V PC contract, you will have to wait a while longer. The Air Force Standard Systems Group, with little advance notice, announced late last week it would not make the award Friday as planned. Bidders, who have had to face a number of o

Digital Government

Geography no safeguard against information warfare

It's midspring in the year 2000. In the midst of yet another crisis in the Persian Gulf, Americans wake up to find out that war has hit the shores of their country for the first time since the Civil War. CNN reports that a logic bomb has been placed in the computer system controlling the Northeast

Digital Government

INTERCEPTS

NTOPS ahoy! The Naval Information Systems Management Center definitely plans to award its longawaited, $170 millionplus desktop and portable PC contract on Thursday. If the NTOPS award date slips yet again, NISMC boss Rear Adm. James Davidson promised to buy the Interceptor a drink. I hope Davids

Digital Government

Telos, ZDS ship dual Pentiums to Bosnia

Telos Corp. and Zenith Data Systems are shipping dualPentium 120 MHz servers, one of the most powerful PCbased servers available on a federal contract, to one of the most missioncritical users in the Defense Department: the headquarters of the Army's 1st Armored Division in Tuzla, Bosnia. Not on

Digital Government

DOD's C4 budget slides, IT remains the same

Belkis LeongHong, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for plans and resources, said the total DOD 1997 budget for command, control, communications and computers and information technology declined $100 million to $23.3 billion in 1997, from $23.4 billion in 1996. LeongHong said the IT budget re

Digital Government

One if by air, two if by E (mail)

For folks who think they have reached the height of '90s technology by sending electronic mail from their cars, the Air Force Air Mobility Command has just oneupped them, signing a $6 million contract to provide email directly to the cockpit of more than 300 cargo aircraft. Maj. Steven Herring, d

Digital Government

Harris/Teledata satellite system offers voice service

TUZLA, Bosnia U.S. forces here definitely could use a "Star Trek" "comm badge" to supplement their tactical satellite systems. But in lieu of that, they have a Harris Corp./Teledata Corp. satellite system that offers something almost as good: U.S. dial tone. Rich Kronebusch, a senior manager

Digital Government

DOD amends DISN pact; Hill members call for delay

Two days before accepting bids on the transmission portion of the nextgeneration, multibilliondollar, longhaul Defense Department contract, the Defense Information Systems Agency issued an amendment opening up the contract to all other federal agencies. DISA described the change as "incidental,

Digital Government

U.S. mandate: `move info, not people

TUZLA, Bosnia Soldiers from the 22nd Signal Command rush around the headquarters of U.S. ground forces to load a convoy of four heavily armed Humvees with one of the key elements of Operation Joint Endeavor: a package of preconfigured routers and communications servers for installation at one of

Digital Government

INTERCEPTS

Exit Paige. Emmett Paige Jr., the ASD/C3I, has no plans on reupping for a second four years if Clinton wins the election in November. Paige, who spent most of his federal career wearing Army green, said, "I had more influence as general than as ASD/C3I.... I also had more fun as a general." Serg

Digital Government

DISA fires back at AT&T

In a sharply worded response to AT&T's protest of the multibilliondollar Defense Information Systems Network procurement, the Defense Department struck back, airing myriad complaints about the longhaul AT&T Defense Commercial Telecommunications Network (DCTN) contract, first awarded to that compa

Digital Government

Troops dial up stateside data

ZAGREB, Croatia The Army has extended powerful telecommunications networks so deep into Bosnia that infantry company clerks can use their PCs to easily tap into databases in the United States, according to topranking communications and computer experts in the Army 5th Signal Command, Defense In

Digital Government

Intercepts

WORMS, Germany Live from 5th Sig. The Interceptor has moved his flyaway rig here, to the HQ of the Army 5th Signal Command, to get the kind of information on Operation Joint Endeavor he'd never find prowling the Ering. This week he will deploy a special ruggedized Interceptor unit to Bosnia, C

Digital Government

Deca hands $200M modernization pact to AT&T NCR

The AT&T NCR Division has won the Defense Commissary Agency's (Deca) fouryear pointofsale modernization contract valued at up to $200 million, a win that reflects the company's more historic product lines. NCR, known for its stronghold on the commercial pointofsale market, was named AT&T Globa

Digital Government

Infosec pact wilts; agencies lack funds

The Defense Department's premier information security contract, valued at almost $2 billion when awarded last July, has fizzled out after hitting its minimum guarantee of just $6 million, knowledgeable industry and former DOD sources said. The state of the contract worries security experts concerne