Digital Government
Shift to self-funding spells success for SSG
As the Air Force's primary information technology group kicks off its annual conference this week it will be concluding a year marked by one of the most revolutionary changes in the organization's history. For most of its three decades of existence the Air Force's Standard Systems Group Montgomery
Digital Government
Navy tests the 'new world' of larger LANs
The Navy last week ramped up an experiment to test how information technology can improve the Navy's performance in battles. In the socalled 'Ring of Fire' experiment the USS Coronado two carriers and their air wings a threeship amphibiousready group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU)
Digital Government
Intercepts
* The end of the DT V tunnel. I'm picking up strong signals from my downtown D.C. Small Business Administration mobile unit as well as from my permanent site in Montgomery Ala. that indicate an "everybody wins" resolution to the Desktop V 8(a) fracas that is in the air. Originally awarded to Inte
Digital Government
No self-promotion on Kerrey, SEAL sites
'G. I. Jane ' the recently released movie starring Demi Moore as the first woman allowed to train for the honored and demanding Navy SEALs offers up a onedimensional and comic book take on Special Operations Forces (SOFs) that bears little relation to reality. Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets come
Digital Government
Navy delivers ground-to-air target imagery
Working behind the camera and not in front of it the real SEALs outdid 'G.I. Jane' last week in a Navy experiment that for the first time transmitted photographs of enemy targets in a remote location to a Navy ship and then into the cockpit of an F/A18 fighter. The SEALs the Navy's elite Special O
Digital Government
Telcos dispute capacity-shortage claims on DTS-C
Although the Defense Information Systems Agency blamed an 'industry shortage" for AT&T Government Markets' inability to meet schedule and technology requirements for a new domestic communications network rival vendors disagreed. These firms also disputed statements by AT&T that it sought to but co
Digital Government
Intercepts
* Deca's DISN dismay. The Defense Commissary Agency asked DISA more than a year ago for a waiver from requirements to use DISN and delays in the rollout of the domestic longhaul network have only solidified the agency's desire to jump from the DISN ship according to signals picked up at my Fort Le
Digital Government
Atlantic Fleet prepares ship-to-shore network
NORFOLK Va. The Navy's Atlantic Fleet (LANTFLT) which is headquartered here has embraced the Pacific Fleet's Information Technology for the 21st Century project which will provide a seamless shiptoshore computing system. LANTFLT has developed a coordinated plan to use IT21 to upgrade its entir
Digital Government
Ships' old computers show need for Navy IT overhaul
NORFOLK VA tour of two Navy ships docked here at the Norfolk Naval Station demonstrates just why the Navy is pursuing its Information Technology for the 21st Century (IT21) program a massive undertaking that will use commercial technology to create a seamless shiptoshore computing environment.
Digital Government
Hughes opens DT V to credit card buys
Federal users planning to buy computers from the Hughes Data Systems Inc. Air Force Desktop V contract can now complete their purchases the way many consumers do: use plastic in this case the government's International Merchant Purchase Authorization Card (IMPAC). The Air Force also has made it e
Digital Government
AT&T exec to retire; possible reorg looms
AT&T Government Markets president Richard Lombardi plans to retire Nov. 1. He told FCW that the decision was made 'over a month ago" well before his division agreed to pay the Defense Department some $66 million to offset costs associated with a year's delay in fielding a new longhaul wideband
Digital Government
Intercepts
DISN defectors? My CONUSwide antenna network has started to pick up strong signals that DISA director Lt. Gen. David Kelley and the gang over at Courthouse Road face wholesale defections by the services the Defense agencies and the unified commands as a result of the oneyear DISN network delay th
Digital Government
Intercepts
JMCOMS star. Kenneth Slaght program manager for the Navy's Joint Maritime Communications System made the rear admiral (lower half) promotion list adding clout to the project designed to serve as the afloat pipeline for the Navy's IT21 project. Lillian Fishburne commanding officer of NCTAMS EASTPAC
Digital Government
WAAS cost overruns threaten program
The Federal Aviation Administration may pay almost $1 billion to develop its major satellitebased navigation program some $350 million more than it anticipated when it launched the program three years ago according to a new report by the General Accounting Office. In late 1994 the FAA estimated it
Digital Government
DOD, DOT support GPS signal
Civilian users of the 24 satellitebased highly accurate Global Positioning System won a guarantee of improved accuracy in the future in a joint planning document backed by the Defense and Transportation departments. The document the biannual 'Federal Radionavigation Plan' (FRP) calls for the addit
Digital Government
TRW launches electronic ordering on ULANA II
TRW Inc. had to wait two and a half years to finally turn on its Air Force $678 million networking infrastructure contract last month and concedes it has lost some advantage to its competitor Electronic Data Systems Corp. But the firm also believes it has a technology edge over EDS on the Unified L
Digital Government
Searchable Web site offers acquisition rules and regs
A searchable World Wide Web site that allows acquisition specialists access to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) as well as acquisition rules and regulations from specific Defense Department commands has recorded over 10 million hits since going online in May 1996. Farsite (farsite.hill.af.
Digital Government
DISN late; DISA, AT&T cut deal
The Defense Information Systems Agency confirmed last week that AT&T was unable to meet its schedule for installation of the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) Transmission ServicesContinental United States (DTSC) a longhaul wideband communications network designed to satisfy the bandwi
Digital Government
Navy delivers top-notch Guam coverage; new TRAC site tracks FBI business
The Navy demonstrated the breadth of the World Wide Web and its ability to compress time and distance with the service's online coverage of the Korean Air Lines Flight 801 crash on Guam earlier this month. Thanks to the Web the Navy put Guam thousands of miles in distance and a day away in time
Digital Government