Digital Government
ASC loses staff, gains power
FORT HUACHUCA Ariz. The Army's worldwide communications supplier will have lost more than half its peak strength of 40 000 civilian and military personnel by the end of fiscal 1998 but its commanding officer Maj. Gen. Charles Sutten believes this amounts to 'a move for the better.' The Army Signa
Digital Government
AT&T grabs third DISN award
The Defense Information Systems Agency last week completed the last in its initial series of acquisitions for the nextgeneration Defense Information Systems Network with the award of a $125 million video teleconferencing contract to AT&T Government Markets. The Defense Video ServicesGlobal (DVSG
Digital Government
Intercepts
The ASD/C3I hunt again. The search for a new ASD/C3I has almost become long enough for a soap opera. I continue to pick up signals that SecDef William Cohen still likes the bifurcated approach to the job with a deputy assistantship for a CIO (reserved for OMB IT guru Bruce McConnell) and an ASD s
Digital Government
Web tracks budget bloat
Before reading the 2 384 pages that make up the fiscal 1998 Budget of the United States which President Clinton submitted to Congress this month drop in at the Bureau of the Public Debt home page (www.publicdebt.treas.gov) to put everything in perspective. The debtminders at Treasury have a tothe
Digital Government
Intercepts
The ASD/C3I sweepstakes continued. Chris Mellon a former Senate intell committee staffer for Defense Secretary William Cohen with excellent credentials (great family name and soninlaw of Sen. John Warner) has emerged as the latest possibility to succeed Emmett Paige Jr. Mellon's getting a lot of
Digital Government
Putting government on a high-tech diet
President Clinton plans to rely on information technology to help manage a government that thinks smarter and works harder on a leaner funding diet in fiscal 1998. But he and top agency officials want to ensure that agencies think equally smart and work hard for the billions in IT dollars they plan
Digital Government
AT&T snares billion-dollar DISN pact
AT&T captured the premiere Defense Department network contract of the decade with a bid of $970 million over a nineyear period a figure far below earlier DOD estimates and roughly half the rate of competing bids. The Defense Information Systems Network Transmission ServicesContinental United Stat
Digital Government
DOD flags MCI/BT merger
The Pentagon last month expressed concern about serious threats to national security if the proposed $20 billion merger between MCI Communications Corp. and British Telecommunications is allowed to proceed. Defense Department officials did not say they are looking to block the merger. But in a care
Digital Government
DISA's Edmonds plans to step down
Air Force Lt. Gen. Al Edmonds director of the Defense Information Systems Agency last month announced plans to retire though he did not set a date. Edmonds who became the second director of DISA on July 29 1994 said in an interview that he will leave the agency satisfied that he has met the major c
Digital Government
Intercepts
Latham rides again? My wideranging Beltway mobile unit keeps picking up signals that Don Latham has a good chance of returning as ASD/C3I with OMB's Bruce McConnell (an ardent ASD/C3I wannabe) slotted as Pentagon CIO and a DASD. To those out there in C3land who find this preposterous please reme
Digital Government
Shuttle site a space odyssey
NASA launched the space shuttle Atlantis along with a new shuttle World Wide Web site on Jan. 12 the birthdate of the mythical HAL computer in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001. While the Web site (shuttle.nasa.gov) does not sing "Daisy Daisy Give me your answer do... " it does have other bells and whistle
Digital Government
DOD opens PC contracts
Reflecting the new competitive environment of federal information technology procurement the Defense Department last month reversed its personal computer procurement policy and opened ordering on all of its PC contracts to any military service. DOD officials predicted that the Army's PC2 and Porta
Digital Government
Intercepts
The hawk and dove. That about sums up the leading candidates to replace Emmett Paige as ASD/C3I. Owen Wormser a retired Air Force fighter pilot and head of a small Alexandria Va.based company called Command and Consulting Inc. has mounted an allout campaign for the job. Wormser who said "I have
Digital Government
SSG, vendors eye ordering off Net
The Air Force Standard Systems Group (SSG) and its contractors anticipate speeding up orders and possibly payment by using Internetbased electronic commerce for the Desktop V PC contract this year. How much electronic ordering and credit card payment will be used for Desktop V a $1 billion contrac
Digital Government
Pacom's Shea tackles tri-service comm challenges
HONOLULU It is no surprise that the Pacific Command (Pacom) the military organization that manages land sea and air forces with responsibility for 100 million square miles of the Earth's surface would require extremely reliable and effective communications. That explains why Col. Robert Shea dire
Digital Government
Hackers' attack on AF blunted
Hackers successfully spoofed and replaced an Air Force World Wide Web page last week but Air Force and Pentagon officials emphasized that the attackers did not penetrate the main Web servers that support a number of other Defense Department Web sites. According to Capt. Terry Bowman the Air Force's
Digital Government
Portable-2 protested
International Data Products Corp. and Commax Corp. late last month protested the Army's Portable2 contract a development that could delay shipments under that program for months. IDP delivered a protest against the $236 million Portable2 contract the day before Christmas with Commax Corp. filing
Digital Government
IT not tied to budgets
The Defense Department still fails to include in its plans for new information technology projects an accompanying budget to pay for the new systems DOD comptroller John Hamre said last month. In a speech to the Washington chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Hamre
People
Army trims field to four
The Army cut at least four bidders from the competition for its Portable2 contract including industry leader Compaq Computer Corp. industry sources said last week. The downselect leaves a field of four companies vying for the $150 millionplus prize: Comax Technologies Inc. Government Technology
People