Gearing Up Guam

In 2009, Navy Chief Information Officer Robert Carey will ramp up plans to develop a communications infrastructure for its operations on Guam, located 7,000 miles west of Los Angeles and 1,500 miles south of Tokyo.

The network would support a massive troop buildup on the 209-square-mile island, which includes shifting 9,000 Marines from Okinawa by 2015. The network is a top priority, Carey says, to support the new III Marine Expeditionary Force garrison and headquarters, which commands Marine units in the Pacific. Air Force, Army and Navy units also will move to the island.

Guam will need a "robust communications infrastructure" to support beefed up Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations for as many as seven long-range Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, which will operate from Andersen Air Force Base to conduct missions over the Pacific and Asia, says Bernie Skoch, a retired Air Force brigadier general and consultant with Suss Consulting.

Along with the Global Hawks and the Marine headquarters, an Army air defense battalion and visiting Navy aircraft carriers will require sophisticated broadband networks capable of moving large amounts of video and data, Skoch says.

Major telecommunications carriers contacted by Government Executive declined to indicate whether they would be interested in bidding on the Guam project. Skoch says the program would require a contractor that has "a forward Pacific presence and can aggressively work to deliver a multimedia network quickly."