GovernmentExecutive.com

Defend the Army IT Budget!

That's one of the key points of hot-off-the-Web Army CIO/G6 500-Day Plan released this month by Vern Bettencourt Jr., the Army's acting chief information officer.

The plan issues what amounts to a clarion call to "Report, Defend and Manage the IT Budgets," and says that to do so the CIO/G-6 must "articulate the IM/IT [information management/information technology initiatives] in terms of capability outcomes that are universally understood."

Since one needs an acronym decryptor to plow through the plan, may I gently suggest the next version throw in some plain English every now and then so the document itself can be universally understood.

Reduce IT Costs -- Undercut GSA

One way to defend the budget, according to the CIO's 500-day plan, is to reduce the costs of acquiring IT hardware and software through bulk buys at the Army enterprise level. This means end users should acquire desktop and notebook computers through the Army Commodity Buy program, which aims to undercut General Services Administration schedule prices by 20 percent.

I wonder what would happen if GSA decided to get impish and cut its prices 10 percent below the bulk Army buy rates.

Joint Network Node Goes Ka-band

The Army continues with its plans to switch the satellite feed for its Joint Network Node system -- which allows infantry battalion and even company commanders to make VoIP phone calls as easily as if they were sitting at a desk in the Pentagon (an assignment few grunt commanders aspire to) -- to Ka-band from the current Ku-band.

This means smaller and lighter satcom terminals for grunt units, which prize easily totable gear.

Is there a JNN satellite manpack in the works? This former Marine radio operator would love to give it a try.

LandWarNet-U? Yuck.

The Army CIO has decided to change the name of the venerable Army Signal Center at Fort Gordon, Ga., which serves as the heart of the Signal Corps and its schoolhouse, to LandWarNet University, a bit of 21st century updating I have a hard time comprehending.

Does this mean that the Signal Corps -- whose insignia pays homage to the wigwag flags used by Maj. Albert James Myer, the first and only Army Signal officer in 1860 -- will be renamed the LandWarNet Corps?

Mesh That RFID Data

The Army Logistics Innovation Agency has a project to use satellite and cellular networks to serve as the backbone of the new active radiofrequency identification mesh network, which will provide global, near real-time asset visibility into the entire Defense supply chain.

Key pieces of this project include existing battlefield networks such as the Army Movement Tracking system installed in supply trucks, Blue Force Tracker system and Combat Service Support Automated Information System Interface Project, all of which already have satellite connections.

The agency wants to add to this mix commercial satellite systems and is testing this summer in Iraq active RFID tags hooked up to an iridium satellite system to transmit container location information, along with details on its supplies, internal temperature, and whether a door is open or closed.

If this works, it will be the bane of old school supply sergeants who conveniently "lose" one set of supplies so they can order another set and keep the lost ones in reserve.

Dress Blues all Around

Yeah, this is supposed to be a technology column, but I must ask your indulgence to note that Marine Commandant James Conway ordered in August that every enlisted Marine who enters the service as of October will be issued a set of the dress blue uniforms.

This reverses an age-old precedent in which the only Marines issued blues were top-performing recruits (not me) at boot camp and folks on special duty, such as recruiters or embassy guards.

I could have purchased my own set, but quickly learned at Camp Pendleton that anyone with blues got tapped on weekends for parades or to show up at grand openings of anything short of a new car wash.

Now, with every Marine in blues, maybe even the car washes will rate a squad of spiffy but irritated Marines in full-dress uniform.