DOD Briefing Book
The development team for the Defense Information Systems Agency's Global Command and Control System, having survived a chilly initial reception by service users, last month won vice president Al Gore's coveted Hammer Award. The award, given to federal organizations that help build a government that "works better and costs less," coincided with the official plug-pulling of GCCS's creaking predecessor, the World Wide Military Command and Control System.
The development team for the Defense Information Systems Agency's Global Command and
Control System, having survived a chilly initial reception by service users, last month
won vice president Al Gore's coveted Hammer Award. The award, given to federal
organizations that help build a government that "works better and costs less,"
coincided with the official plug-pulling of GCCS's creaking predecessor, the World Wide
Military Command and Control System.
The Defense Mapping Agency has tapped Tasc Inc. of Washington to provide it with
systems help. Under a five-year, $52.5 million contract awarded last month, Tasc engineers
will concentrate on systems engineering and integration as part of a broad DMA technical
modernization program that includes a planned Digital Production System for maps.
Computer Sciences Corp. has released a client tool that lets PC users run Joint
Computer-Aided Lifecycle Support applications. Applications, such as JCAL's Global Data
Management System, previously required Unix or X-terminal platforms.
Known as the PC Client Version 2, the tool has a drop-and-drop capability for Microsoft
Windows environments and reusable applications programming interfaces.
According to Lt. Gen. John Fairfield, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for
communications and information, 24 recent sorties by U.S. combat aircraft over Northern
Iraq were rendered useless because of data link problems at ground radar stations in
Turkey supporting the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). The aborted sorties
were flown as part of Operation Provide Comfort.
Hewlett-Packard Corp. is refreshing the Navy's Super-Minicomputer Program contract
again. The additions include new server, storage and software options.
Super-Mini buyers now can buy HP's K210 and K410 120-MHz servers, as well as the HP
D350 server with two-way symmetric multiprocessing capability and support for redundant
array of inexpensive disks storage. Also on the contract are the company's disk array, HP
AutoRAID, and its client-server application, OpenView Operations Center. Contact
Hewlett-Packard's Super-Mini office at 800-852-6464.
Speaking at a recent Software Engineering Institute conference, Fairfield also offered
up a startling testimony to the growing influence SEI's Capability Maturity Model, which
measures the rigor of software development processes.
Fairfield said systems officials at the House of Representatives recently asked the Air
Force's own CMM evaluation team for a software assessment. Character evaluations are next.
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