GovernmentExecutive.com

The military adage "hurry up and wait" may

become as obsolete as brown boots and C rations once the Defense Department

issues smart cards.

DoD wants smart cards to replace active and reserve

component military ID cards. The cards would also be issued

to civilians and certain contractors with access to DoD

facilities.

Smart cards are equipped with an electronic chip, a

magnetic strip and a barcode. They've proven to be

efficient time savers that can be programmed for use

everywhere from dining facilities to weapons armories. They

can be used to grant physical access to defense facilities

and to electronically access computer networks.

The card can hold information about service members'

inoculations, medical and dental records, finance

allotments and other data.

Smart cards could help eliminate standing in line, filling

out forms and other processing chores, according to defense

officials here. Instead of moving service members from one

station to the next, a simple swipe of the card would

provide all the necessary information. Flight manifests and

deployment processing could be completed in minutes rather

than hours.

The need for information security is the driving force

behind the decision to employ smart cards, according to Ken

Scheflen, director of the Defense Manpower Data Center

here. The card would serve as the individual identification

key, or "PKI" for "public key infrastructure," that

provides additional layers of security on DoD's computer

networks.

Defense officials say a critical element of this

infrastructure is that it requires strong and substantial

evidence of the individual's identity. Key holders would

use their PKI to access DoD computer systems and secure

facilities, make secure online transactions and for other

security purposes, officials said.

Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre has authorized the

department to implement the program, which military

officials have been working on in one form or another for

more than a decade, Scheflen said. The decision follows a

series of tests done by the services over the past two

years, he said.

Congress designated the Navy, under the direction of the

DoD's chief information officer, as the lead agency for the

$145 million program, which would be implemented from

fiscal 2000 to 2005. The cost of implementing the program

in fiscal 2000 would be about $13 million.

Defense officials said the first year would be devoted to

developing software and obtaining card stock and hardware.

During the second year, hardware would be installed in the

more than 800 sites worldwide where the military currently

issues ID cards and at about 75 new sites. As the equipment

is installed, local officials would then begin issuing

smart cards.

"We do not plan to convert dependent or retiree ID cards

because no requirement has been identified that would

justify the expense," Scheflen noted. The cards will cost

about $6 each, he estimated.

"The greatest thing about the smart card is that it allows

an organization to take a hard look at its business

processes to make them more efficient and to make life

easier for the people in the field," said Mary Dixon,

director of DoD's new Access Card Office.

The services will be able to program cards to meet their

needs, Dixon said. "The plan is for the components to get a

certain amount of space on that chip that they can use for

any application they choose," she said. A Marine program,

for example, uses smart cards to access weapons armories.

The services recently conducted tests in Hawaii. During a

visit to Oahu, Dixon said, she watched service members use

their smart cards to zip through a Navy dining hall head

count station while she had to stop and fill out a form. At

the end of each day, she noted, Navy officials quickly

tallied the names and information provided electronically

by the cards. Deciphering handwriting on the paper forms is

much more difficult and time consuming, she added.

The Army in Hawaii uses smart cards during its deployment

readiness processing, Dixon said. Once a month, units that

deploy regularly go to a gymnasium or auditorium for what

previously was a long, tedious process, she said. Service

members would carry all their finance, personnel and

medical records and walk around to 12 stations.

"Now they can take that smart card - no papers - and dip

it into the first card reader and it checks for the 12

different things," Dixon said. Instead of going to 12

tables each month, service members now go only to stations

where they have a deficiency.

"It reduces a process that used to take a day or even

longer, down to a period of hours," she said. "So that

means those people are now available to do training or

other jobs as opposed to standing in line, hurry up and

wait."

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