Digital Government
Hughes, Sun launch Air Force buy
Hughes Data Systems and Sun Microsystems Inc. have kicked off aggressive sales campaigns for their Air Force Workstations (AFWS) contracts, each vowing to offer buyers in the tactical, scientific and engineering communities price/performance packages unavailable on other government highperformance
Digital Government
Survey ships sail into history
The Navy has started to deploy the most computerized oceanographic survey ships in its history, with the Navy standard Tactical Advanced Computer4 (TAC4) contract providing most of the computing muscle for this new class of TAGS 60 ships. Not only do the central computers in the TAGS 60 class h
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Intercepts
Info warfare aweigh. Look for Vice Adm. Walter Davis, currently director of the Navy Space and Electronic Warfare Command (N6), to take on a new information warfare role within the month. To reflect this new mission and the importance of IW the command will be renamed Space, Command and Contr
Digital Government
Hughes, ZDS grab $1B Desktop V prize
Hughes Data Systems and Zenith Data Systems last week won the richest federal PC prize of the year: the Air Force's Desktop V program, valued at roughly $1 billion. The Air Force awarded Hughes a contract valued at $924.4 million and ZDS a contract valued at $1 billion. Each of these contracts cove
Digital Government
Commanders, Soldiers Bridge Distances With VTC
SARAJEVO, Bosnia Step inside the nondescript door of one of a series of standard 40foot shipping containers that serve as overflow offices at the CINC IFOR compound here, and you'll see a plush video teleconferencing room with three giant TV screens. Adm. Leighton Smith, commander in chief of t
Digital Government
Rockwell snares $1.3B GPS satellite contract
The Air Force last week ensured the viability of the Global Positioning System well into the next century by awarding Rockwell a $1.3 billion contract for 33 improved GPS satellites. Donald Beall, Rockwell's chairman and chief executive officer, called the award "a significant milestone" for the
Digital Government
POP Goes the Internet
The Army overcame significant technical challenges to provide Internet service over the narrowbandwidth tactical command and control networks supporting the Bosnian peacekeeping mission. The digital field switches and tactical satellites used by the Army's Tactical Packet Network (TPN) were desig
Digital Government
Troops at Home With COTS Hardware, Software
Visit practically any U.S. unit in Bosnia, Croatia or Hungary whether it's doing business out of a tent, a trailer or a shotup office building and in one quick glance you'll see anything from a handful to a roomful of commercial offtheshelf computers and workstations. From the NATO Combine
Digital Government
Bosnian Mission Demands Most Complex Network Ever
Top U.S. and NATO command and control chiefs for Operation Joint Endeavor did not set out to build the most complex communications network ever fielded, but they ended up doing just that. Tactical, geographic and political factors all contributed to the building of this complicated pipeline that li
Digital Government
Army Fields Advanced Telemedicine Network
LANDSTUHL, Germany The Army is fielding the most advanced telemedicine system in history to provide medical care to U.S. forces deployed in Bosnia and Hungary for Operation Joint Endeavor. According to Lt. Col. Tom Semarge, biomedical information systems officer for Landstuhl Regional Medical Ce
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Intercepts
Downsizing in the desert. A massive Army reorganization due for announcement in the next two weeks calls for the transfer of the HQ of the Army Information Systems Command, headed by Maj. Gen. Charles Sutten, from Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to Fort McPherson, Ga. The "Force XXI Reorganization" plan al
Digital Government
Concept Automation, Cordant win NTOPS
Concept Automation Inc. and Cordant Inc. last week won a longawaited Navy contract for 60,000plus PCs that will provide users with Pentium PCs on their desks and 486based laptops. The Naval Information Systems Management Center (NISMC) valued the award of the New Technology for Office and Portab
Digital Government
Desktop V award date slips
If you were waiting for the award of the giant Air Force Desktop V PC contract, you will have to wait a while longer. The Air Force Standard Systems Group, with little advance notice, announced late last week it would not make the award Friday as planned. Bidders, who have had to face a number of o
Digital Government
Geography no safeguard against information warfare
It's midspring in the year 2000. In the midst of yet another crisis in the Persian Gulf, Americans wake up to find out that war has hit the shores of their country for the first time since the Civil War. CNN reports that a logic bomb has been placed in the computer system controlling the Northeast
Digital Government
INTERCEPTS
NTOPS ahoy! The Naval Information Systems Management Center definitely plans to award its longawaited, $170 millionplus desktop and portable PC contract on Thursday. If the NTOPS award date slips yet again, NISMC boss Rear Adm. James Davidson promised to buy the Interceptor a drink. I hope Davids
Digital Government
Telos, ZDS ship dual Pentiums to Bosnia
Telos Corp. and Zenith Data Systems are shipping dualPentium 120 MHz servers, one of the most powerful PCbased servers available on a federal contract, to one of the most missioncritical users in the Defense Department: the headquarters of the Army's 1st Armored Division in Tuzla, Bosnia. Not on
Digital Government
DOD's C4 budget slides, IT remains the same
Belkis LeongHong, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for plans and resources, said the total DOD 1997 budget for command, control, communications and computers and information technology declined $100 million to $23.3 billion in 1997, from $23.4 billion in 1996. LeongHong said the IT budget re
Digital Government
One if by air, two if by E (mail)
For folks who think they have reached the height of '90s technology by sending electronic mail from their cars, the Air Force Air Mobility Command has just oneupped them, signing a $6 million contract to provide email directly to the cockpit of more than 300 cargo aircraft. Maj. Steven Herring, d
Digital Government
Harris/Teledata satellite system offers voice service
TUZLA, Bosnia U.S. forces here definitely could use a "Star Trek" "comm badge" to supplement their tactical satellite systems. But in lieu of that, they have a Harris Corp./Teledata Corp. satellite system that offers something almost as good: U.S. dial tone. Rich Kronebusch, a senior manager
Digital Government