Digital Government
NIMA's Web site: Too stealthy for casual surfer
Web sites bear the stamp of their host organizations and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency's site is no exception. NIMA's austere opening section for the public portion of its site (www.nima.mil) is an online reflection of the 'black' world of its two parents the Central Intelligence Agency
Digital Government
Intercepts
Eminently Emmett. Paige Jr. of course whose prepared remarks for his retirement ceremony as ASD/C3I last month carried the same pungency as his utterances throughout his tour of duty. DOD still relies too much on "sneakernet" to exchange data Paige said while most "systems or applications are no
Digital Government
Marines take new IT to Sierra Leone
Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) responding to realworld contingencies in Sierra Leone and the Congo during the past month tapped into newly deployed command control and information technology systems to support these missions. Marines from the 22nd MEU who last week evacuated 2 500 Americans and
Digital Government
Telecom giants battle for $1B systems revamp
Bidders view the upcoming $1 billionplus project to upgrade Pentagon telecommunications systems as a battle of the telephone giants pitting AT&T against its offspring including Bell Atlantic and Lucent Technologies Inc. as well as GTE Inc. All four companies will vie for a prize valued as both a s
Digital Government
Four-star Adm. Clemins starts C2 revolution with IT-21
PEARL HARBOR Hawaii Not many fourstar admirals bother to burrow down into the technical underpinnings of their command and control (C2) systems. Adm. Archie Clemins commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT) headquartered here has not only mastered arcane technical jargon but he h
Digital Government
Navy casts Net into deep-sea exploration
The Navy's oceanographer develops systems for undersea surveillance navigation and global weather and oceanographic forecasting so it is understandable that the World Wide Web site oceanographer.navy.mil evokes the sea's magnificence and provides a wealth of information about the tools needed to ma
Digital Government
Pacific Fleet sails into cyberspace
HONOLULU The 'tyranny of distance' has continually confounded sailors since Magellan set out on his epic journey across the Pacific Ocean. Nearly 500 years later the U.S. Pacific Fleet based here has yet to find a way to shorten the sailing time across this ocean. But the fleet has discovered tha
Digital Government
Intercepts
HONOLULU Thanks but no thanks. The Interceptor flyaway rig has touched down here en route to WesPac with heavy traffic coming in from my Courthouse Road stealth site. Despite strong signals earlier this month that Maj. Gen. David Kelley had been all but fitted for the DISA honcho official unifor
Digital Government
Marines upgrade 386s to Pentiums, save money
Just as the famous Parris Island S.C. Marine boot camp instills guts in its recruits the base's computer division installed more powerful guts in the base's computers. The Depot Computer and Telecommunications Division (DCTD) at the Marine Corps' Recruit Depot Parris Island recently installed high
Digital Government
Intercepts
DISA goes green. 'Tis fitting to report on St. Patrick's Day that Army Maj. Gen. David Kelley a truly lucky Irishman who gets to wear green all year will take over as DISA's director from Air Force Lt. Gen. Al Edmonds. According to tidbits picked up by my wee folk on the Ering Kelley currently D
Digital Government
1108th wears many hats serving as DSCS gatekeeper
Combine the functions of a worldwide satellite communications company with a local telephone company throw in a bunch of Spanish linguist radio operators and stir in the operation of the mythical WashingtonMoscow 'hot line ' and you begin to get a sense of the mission of the Army's 1108th Signal B
Digital Government
DOD, DOT join forces to expand civilian use of GPS
The Defense and Transportation departments reached an agreement last month that ensures civilian users continued access to a second frequency from the Global Positioning System (GPS). DOT officials called the agreement 'essential' for applications such as the nextgeneration GPSbased air traffic c
Digital Government
IT spending remains flat
Total federal spending on information technology systems and services will hit $24.8 billion in fiscal 1998 up slightly from $24.7 billion in the current fiscal year according to Bruce McConnell director of the information policy branch of the Office of Management and Budget. McConnell said that wh
Digital Government
Defense spending on C4I to hit $40B
Defense Department spending on command control communications computers and intelligence (C4I) will hit $40 billion in fiscal 1998 a $3 billion jump from fiscal 1997 a top DOD official said last month. Fiscal 1998 spending for C4I will remain 'robust' to support battlefield 'information dominance '
Digital Government
Sutten leads the evolution of the Army Signal Command
FORT HUACHUCA Ariz. To paraphrase Winston Churchill Maj. Gen. Charles Sutten did not intend to preside over the demise of the Army Signal Command (ASC) here when he took over as commanding general of its predecessor the Information Systems Command (ISC) in July 1995. But Sutten faced a situation
Digital Government
DISA discloses secret NSA pact with Sprint
The Defense Information Systems Agency late last month publicly acknowledged a contract awarded to Sprint last fall for a classified global telecommunications network designed primarily to serve the supersecret National Security Agency according to industry analysts. Sources said last week that Sp
Digital Government
Nuts-and-bolts FAA site provides wealth of data
Despite the increased use of tools and technologies to add superficial glitz and pizazz to federal Web sites the public still pounces on those providing timely relevant or valuable information. Take a look at the Federal Aviation Administration's Aviation Safety Data site which opened for business
Digital Government
Intercepts
Gauss far from gone. The DISA GCCS and GCSS czar Rear Adm. John Gauss finds rumors of his imminent departure laughable. To those who believe or wish he would retire Gauss pointed out that he has not yet spent three years in grade as an 07 and he plans to hang around at least long enough for th
Digital Government
AT&T outbids GTE for DOD pact
It is hard to outdo a local telephone company in its own market but AT&T Government Markets did exactly that when it beat GTE Hawaiian Telephone Co. for a 10year contract to develop and operate an advanced digital network to serve 70 000 Defense Department users in Hawaii. Although billed by the D
Digital Government