What's Brewin: A GPS Satellite Gap?

I just finished reading the 40-page (actually 34 pages, subtracting three pages of acronyms and three blank pages) biennial report on the Global Positioning System, which Defense Chief Information Officer John Grimes submitted to Congress in October, and it looks like we could face a serious GPS satellite gap next year.

Of the 31 GPS satellites currently in orbit, 20 are past their design life and 19 lack redundancy in either their navigation or satellite systems or both, according to the report. Defense has enough new GPS birds in the pipeline to maintain an operational constellation (a minimum of 24 satellites are needed to ensure positioning accuracy), but if launches of the GPS IIF model birds are delayed, "sustainment of the GPS constellation will be difficult," the report noted.

Boeing has scheduled the launch of the GPS IIF satellites next year. That needs to happen not only to maintain the constellation but to ensure that the United States can operate in the new frequency that the International Telecommunications Union allocated for a third GPS civil signal, which is designed to support precision aviation navigation.

If the Defense Department does not get a satellite up and operating by August 2009, it could end up losing its ITU allocation. Google probably will grab it as part of its spectrum plans in its effort to rule the world.

What, You Left Your Laptop in the Car?

Defense spends billions of dollars a year on computer and network security only to have folks who don't exercise common sense trash the investment by not taking simple precautions such as by leaving their government-issued laptop in their cars unattended.

Steve Muck, privacy team lead for the Navy CIO office, writing in the current issue of the service's computer magazine, CHIPS, reported that in July five Navy employees had laptops stolen from their cars, another employee's laptop was filched from a locked hotel room and another had a laptop heisted while on travel out of the country. Another two Navy employees had their thumb drives stolen from their government offices.

All these incidents were easily avoidable if employees had followed guidelines from the CIO, including not leaving computers in the car, Muck wrote.

No Comm Yet With SPAWAR

More than a month ago I reported that the Veterans Affairs Department had tapped the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command to develop a network to process the complex claims that are the consequence of the new GI bill.

Since then I have tried unsuccessfully to land an interview with SPAWAR and now seem to have hit the wall because they don't like what I have written in this column. Evidently, SPAWAR took offense to my column two weeks ago, which pointed out SPAWAR's shortcomings in developing complex systems, as detailed in a Defense inspector general's report.

Steve Davis, a SPAWAR public affairs officer, told me that the column did not make his job any easier in setting up interviews. Following this logic, the Navy probably should not talk to any reporter because sooner or later negative news will come out in almost any publication -- with the possible exception of Cat Fancy magazine.

I do fancy getting on the flea and tick beat some day.

Operation Covert Santa II at Walter Reed

My pal and fellow Vietnam veteran Ed Meagher, director of strategy for health affairs at SRA International, has kicked off his annual Christmas gift drive for severely wounded soldiers and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Ed is looking for some generous elves to help these troops. Soldiers provide Ed with a gift list, he then removes their names and forwards to the elves. Each elf can choose to provide gifts from a Santa list for an entire family, an individual family member, an individual gift, or make a cash contribution for a gift.

The elves wrap the gifts and deliver them to Ed and his foundation. Santa distributes the gifts on Christmas Day, and, as Ed says, this is the purest form of giving because it is done anonymously.

Last year 200 elves provided Christmas gifts for 88 severely injured soldiers and their families, and he said, "This year we think there could be 150 soldiers and their families who need to leave it to Santa to take care of their Christmas lists, so we will need that many more elves to step forward."

If you want to enlist as an elf, contact Ed at 703-759-9014, or at emeagher@cox.net. You can also send a donation to:

Operation Covert Santa
453 Walker Road
Great Falls, Va. 22066