What's Brewin: The Story Behind the GI Bill IT System

Last week I reported that the Veterans Affairs Department tapped the Space and Naval Warfare System Command to develop an IT system to manage the complex benefits under the new GI bill, which President Bush signed this summer and goes into effect in August 2009. VA hired SPAWAR, officials said, because the department lacked the resources to do the job.

Comment on this article in The Forum.But, I'm told, SPAWAR was the last choice of high-level VA executives, who favored what can best be described as the Dulles Toll Road approach to IT systems development and benefits payment.

An outside-the-Beltway systems integrator proposed to develop the system on its own dime in return for charging VA on every transaction it processed. That's per beneficiary, per transaction, a sure-fire way to collect cash like a tollbooth and an approach that gives new meaning to outsourcing.

But that integrator pulled out after veteran service organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars picked up some of the details of the deal and strongly objected to it at a House VA committee hearing in September.

Despite the objections, top VA management spent the next month trying to cut the same deal with another integrator, which pulled out on Oct. 16, the day before VA Secretary James Peake informed the House and Senate VA committees that it had established the interagency agreement with SPAWAR.

I have not yet heard from SPAWAR on how it plans to manage development of the new system, but it's obvious it will need contractor support. I've learned that a partnership of IBM, CGI Consulting and SRA International submitted a proposal to VA last week to lend their personnel and expertise to help the agency and SPAWAR build the system.

It also appears that SPAWAR has a tight and ongoing systems development and consulting relationship with VA that goes far beyond the estimated $130 million project.

I'm told that VA's Office of Enterprise Development has funded SPAWAR to the tune of $400 million -- taken from its fiscal 2008 budget -- for all kinds of systems and consulting work, and I'd like to learn more about this. Hopefully, SPAWAR will provide me with information on all the work it is doing for VA as a Veterans Day present.

This is all so bizarre it makes my head hurt. I’m just an old Marine 2531 radio operator trying to make his way in a confusing world.

Cyberspace Ops Defined

I like precision in language, and apparently so does the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which recently defined "cyberspace operations." A definition is a key step toward conducting the operations. No definition, no operations.

A benevolent reader sent me a Sept. 29 action memo from Marine Gen. James Cartwright, JCS vice chairman, to Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England. The memo defined cyberspace operations thusly:

"The employment of cyber capabilities where the primary purpose is to achieve military objectives or effects in or though cyberspace. Such operations include computer network operations and activities to operate and defend the Global Information Grid."

This definition has to be placed in context with a memo England wrote on May 12, which first defined cyberspace as "a global domain within the information environment consisting of the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers."

England also pointed out in the memo that "because all the combatant commands, military departments and other defense components need the ability to work unhindered in cyberspace, the domain does not fall within the purview of any particular department or component." He then asked the Joint Chiefs to come up with a definition of cyberspace operations.

This is not an idle taxonomic exercise -- I can't tell you how long I have been waiting for the opportunity to work taxonomic into this column -- on the part of the chiefs or England.

As Cartwright said in his memo: "The proposed definition for cyberspace operations provides a foundation for the military departments to man, train and equip forces without overly constraining the inevitable changes that will occur in our organizational structures, missions and capabilities."

This lays the foundation for a single unified command, the U.S. Strategic Command, to take charge of all things cyber, as I have reported in the past, with forces supplied by outfits such as the planned Naval Cyber Forces Command and the slimmed down Air Force Cyber Command.

Now that everything has been well-defined by the chiefs -- and accepted by John Grimes, the Defense chief information officer, according to another internal memo that came my way -- look for England to make a decision on the cyber force structure real soon.

What’s Not a Cyber Op

Although the Air Force and Navy both planned to put psychological operations and electronic warfare under their cyber commands, Cartwright ruled out such a shift. Operations such as these, which do not employ cyber capabilities, should not be considered cyberspace operations, he said.

Folks at the planned Navy Cyber Command should express their gratitude to Cartwright for this change, as it means they will not have to get anywhere near an EA-6B jammer aircraft. Based on up close and personal experience, an EA6-B is a machine designed to turn jet fuel into an incredible amount of noise.

Raytheon Seeks "Cyber Athletes"

Keith Little, PR manager for Raytheon's intelligence and information systems division, says his outfit is looking for more than a few good cyberathletes, or engineers "who exercise their dexterity and hand-eye coordination through the tackling of complex problems . . . and build up biceps lifting Red Bull and Mountain Dew cans hundreds of times a day to fight the digital cyberwar."

Little says the majority of these jobs are in the DC area -- though the company has openings around the world -- and considering the state of the economy, it might be worthwhile to check out the Raytheon jobs Web site.

DISA Needs a Good SCIF Deal

The Defense Information Systems Agency has a big push on to allow as many of its 6,000 employees as possible to telecommute after the agency moves to its new digs at Fort Meade, Md., in 2011 from numerous locations in Northern Virginia.

Supporting DISA telecommuters who do unclassified networks is not much of a problem, Jack Penkoske, the agency's director of manpower, personnel and security told me. All it takes is a broadband connection over a virtual private network, with access to unclassified Web sites and databases controlled by the Common Access Card, which employees use at work.

But, to telecommute and do classified work, employees need to work in a sensitive compartmented information facility, known as a SCIF, which is protected with sound baffles and 8-inch thick concrete walls to keep conversations from leaking out.

Jack told me he would like to find SCIFs in the Northern Virginia area from which DISA employees could work. So far, he has only received offers from vendors with price tags he described as "outrageous." He declined to provide me with a dollar figure.

If anyone has a SCIF available that is merely overpriced rather than outrageous, DISA may be interested.