Navy plans $2 billion network

Under an unprecedented program called the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet, the Navy will spend $2 billion or more to replace virtually its entire information technology infrastructure in the United States over the next two years. The program calls for a single vendor team to provide everything from personal computers to Internet nodes in a seamless IT environment where the Navy is buying services, not equipment.

The N/MCI, as it is known, will provide telephone, Internet, local and base network communications and the hardware needed to use those networks to 450,000 uniformed and civilian personnel. In a first for the military services, it will provide all services over a single set of wires and network nodes. Both classified and unclassified traffic will use the same network pipes, and the new network must be deployable overseas.

In a key portion of the draft request for proposals released last week, the Navy outlined its entire IT infrastructure and explained its needs. None of the other services has issued such a complete, cross-cutting picture of its needs in peacetime and wartime, encompassing logistics, accounting, recruiting, personnel management, acquisition and other functions along with military combat. Although the N/MCI will serve primarily U.S. sites, its communications links will extend into foreign combat zones and potentially link all 654,000 naval and marine personnel worldwide in wartime.

The 235-page document will help would-be contractors understand the current IT architectures of the Navy and Marine Corps and what they will be expected to supply. Navy officials say they expect the bidders to name their price on a per-seat, or per-user, basis, over the course of a contract that could continue for eight years. The tentative deadline for vendors' proposals is Dec. 6, and the service plans to award the contract by May.

Some vendors have complained that the scope of the acquisition will keep all but the very largest IT companies from bidding for the work. Until now, the Navy (like the other services and civilian agencies) has acquired its combat support systems, office networks, PCs, phone services and other elements of N/MCI separately. However, the Navy program executive officer for IT, Joseph R. Cipriano, says he expects substantial participation by small and disadvantaged businesses in the new program.

The Navy will use a best-value scoring system to select the N/MCI supplier. Bid evaluations will be based in part on the vendors' proposals for meeting the Navy's performance measurement needs. Security and reliability of the proposed systems are among the performance goals, along with customer satisfaction. Cipriano says he expects the Navy will hold costs down by integrating its systems, achieving greater efficiency and having a single contractor to deal with.

The N/MCI program is the latest manifestation of a number of IT procurement trends in the federal government. Several agencies are experimenting with "seat management," in which they procure local networks, PCs and support services on a per-user basis. Agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service also have chosen to select a single prime contractor to provide IT in a more systematic and coordinated way than in the past.

Meanwhile, technological developments are pointing toward the use of multipurpose network pipes that can carry all kinds of traffic, unlike the separate telephone, television and data networks that have been the norm until now.