Digital Government

DOD awards largest-ever electronic credit card pact

The Defense Department last week tagged U.S. Bancorp Payment Systems division for the largest electronic purchase card contract ever awarded a contract that DOD expects will help the department develop electronic commerce. The 10year contract, which is scheduled to begin in December, provides U.

Digital Government

DOD's Cohen rolls out Joint Electronic Commerce Program Office

Secretary of Defense William Cohen this month officially unveiled the Joint Electronic Commerce Program Office, which will work on accelerating the development and use of electronic commerce throughout DOD.

Digital Government

Commercial chips put nukes, satellites at risk

The Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) is working on a solution to protect commercial chips in nuclear missiles and communications satellites from being crippled by an increase in radiation associated with aboveground nuclear tests. Commercial multiplechip processor modules, which guide nuclea

Digital Government

New college president to lead IT charge

Vice Adm. Arthur K. Cebrowski, the incoming president of the Naval War College, said last week that he would enhance the school's role in supporting experimentation with cuttingedge information technology for the battlefield. At the TechNet '98 conference, which was sponsored by the Armed Forces C

Digital Government

GAO: Command and control problems increase B-2A Bomber costs

The General Accounting Office reported last week that deficiencies in the command and control systems used aboard the Air Force's B2A Bomber limit the aircraft's ability to carry out its missions, causing the cost per plane to increase by more than $1.6 billion.

Digital Government

TechNet focuses on better communications

WASHINGTON, D.C. Industry vendors displayed a wide range of new technology at the TechNet '98 Conference, sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, ranging from Defensespecific solutions to commercial products. But the focus clearly was on better communications. '

Digital Government

Keeping Marines out of the danger zone

In December 1992, Marine Lt. Col. Carl R. Bott was walking the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia. He was there as part of a small, special operations team that was assigned to reconnoiter the city before the main landing force of Operation Restore Hope arrived to deliver food and water to the wartorn

Digital Government

DIA taps six firms for intell BPAs

The Defense Intelligence Agency last week awarded blanket purchase agreements to six vendors under a $300 million program that will serve as one of the primary vehicles of information technology services for the Defense intelligence community. DIA tapped Computer Sciences Corp., Litton/PRC Inc. and

Digital Government

Deca dumps commissary upgrade plan

A plan to modernize the Defense Commissary Information System (DCIS) suffered a fatal blow last month when the Defense Commissary Agency (Deca) canceled the program in the face of rising Year 2000 costs and an inability to accommodate commercial best practices and systems. The contract, awarded to

Digital Government

Bill targets logistics outsourcing

The House has hogtied the Army's $1 billion program to modernize its logistics operations, with obscure language tucked into its version of the fiscal 1999 Defense authorization bill. The story of the Wholesale Logistics Modernization Program (WLMP) highlights the political battle that sets those w

Digital Government

Feds mount telemed expedition on Everest

When veteran mountain climber Rob Hall and seven others realized they were about to perish in a fierce snowstorm on the south summit of Mount Everest in 1996, their last hope was a satellite phone that Hall had carried with him during their ascent. Although it allowed Hall to say his last goodbye t

Digital Government

DOD launches high-tech command post project

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) last week kicked off a fouryear, $20 million project to develop interactive decisionsupport information technologies that military commanders will use in future wars. The socalled Command Post of the Future initiative will transform today's c

Digital Government

Booz-Allen nabs $200M info assurance pact

BoozAllen & Hamilton Inc. last week won a contract potentially worth $200 million to staff and operate the Defense Department's Information Assurance Technology Analysis Center, the focal point of the department's information assurance initiatives. IATAC, part of the Defense Technical Information

Digital Government

Spies turn to high-tech info ops

With the Internet playing a larger and larger role in many operations, federal agencies recently have started investigating alternative methods of communication to provide remote users with dedicated links to the global information infrastructure.

Digital Government

Agencies test waters of wireless Net access

With the Internet playing a larger and larger role in many operations, federal agencies recently have started investigating alternative methods of communication to provide remote users with dedicated links to the global information infrastructure.

Digital Government

DOD awards $200M pact to create information assurance center

The Defense Department ratcheted up its commitment to information assurance yesterday when the Defense Technical Information Center awarded a 10year, $200 million contract to BoozAllen?#038;Hamilton Inc. to man and operate an information assurance center.

Digital Government

Gore calls for top-down electronic privacy review

The Clinton administration last week announced a new plan that requires federal agencies to conduct a topdown review of their organizations' handling of electronic information that is protected by the Privacy Act. Vice President Al Gore, speaking at New York University's commencement ceremony, unv

Digital Government

NSA concerns could hamper DOD Y2K fix

The National Security Agency has slapped a security blanket on the Pentagon's efforts to fix the Year 2000 millennium bug, which could further slow the Defense Department's alreadybehindschedule Year 2000 fixes. NSA has determined that all information detailing DOD's computers and its efforts to

Digital Government

DMS gaps force DOD to keep Autodin

A Defense Department official last week confirmed that a large portion of the aging Autodin messaging system will remain in operation as late as 2004 to handle highpriority communications for civilian and military organizations responsible for nuclear weapons and topsecret intelligence informatio

Digital Government

Agencies' IT spending nears $30B in fiscal '99

Federal agencies will spend almost $30 billion with private information technology contractors in fiscal 1999, according to a report released last week by consulting firm Federal Sources Inc. At its annual conference last week, Federal Sources, McLean, Va., estimated fiscal 1999 IT spending will to