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Date: Thu, 7 Jul 94 08:08:02 PDT
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SUBJECT:  HOUSE PANEL BACKS DIGITIZATION, JOINT TELECOM NETWORK
SOURCE:   Phillips Publishing via Fulfillment by INDIVIDUAL, Inc.
DATE:     July 5, 1994
INDEX:    [3]
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  C4I NEWS via INDIVIDUAL, Inc. -- In a boost to two nascent C3 programs,
House appropriators are supporting the Pentagon's plans to merge defense and
civilian telecommunications traffic and the Army's digitization effort.

  The House Appropriations Committee, in a report on its FY '95 Defense
Appropriations Bill, calls DoD's plans to merge its information pipeline,
the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN), with the follow-on to the
federal telephone network, FTS 2000, "refreshing." But the panel does
caution that DISN and the Defense Messaging System, an E-mail application
that will run on the network, "must be carefully managed and security
measures strongly endorsed."

  The panel also voices its support for the Army's digitization efforts,
particularly the service's plans to "maximize the use of non-developmental
and commercial off-the- shelf equipment."

  In good news for the firms lining up to bid on pieces the digitization
work--including Science Applications International Corp., General Dynamics,
ITT and Loral--the appropriators boost the Army's FY '95 request of $75.86
million to $115.86 million. Both the House and Senate Armed Services
Committees also increased the digitization request: the House by $50
million; the Senate, by $3 million.

  But the panel agrees with the concerns HASC expresses in its report on the
FY '95 Defense Authorization Bill, saying that the Army has not defined "the
overall system architecture and digital interfaces, standards and
protocols." Other areas of concern include "insufficient emphasis on digital
integration with" aviation or Marine Corps' assets.

  The panel directs the Army to provide a report to the congressional
appropriations committees by March 1, 1995, identifying a master plan for
developing, testing and producing digitization hardware and software,
including an architecture for interfacing with C3I systems.

  The appropriators also look favorably on the new Alert, Locate and Report
Missiles (ALARM) effort, boosting the $150 million request to $330 million.
The additional funds must be used to accelerate launch of the first ALARM
bird, now slated for FY '04. In addition, due to the "national importance of
the program" the panel directs the secretary of defense to: ensure the
program is fully funded in the out-years; complete the engineering and
manufacturing development downselect by March 31, 1996; and work toward
first launch not later than 2000.

  ...Panel Hits SBIS, CHS

  Cutting the Army's operation and maintenance request for the Sustaining
Base Information System (SBIS) by $24 million, the panel expresses concerns
about "disturbing trends" in the program, for which Loral is the prime
contractor. Such concerns include an increase in the number of lines of
software code and the fact that the hardware has yet to pass a systems
acceptance test.

  SBIS is the Army's base system modernization plan.

  The committee also criticizes the Army for planning to field hardware
under the Common Hardware/Software II contract "prior to completion of all
pre-production testing and engineering." Because the CHS-I contract will
expire prior to the completion of all CHS-II qualification tests, "a serious
break in production will occur."

  To minimize fielding interruptions, the panel directs the Army to examine
the possibility of extending the CHS-I contract. Such an extension would be
a boost to the contractor, Miltope Corp.

[07-05-94 at 18:00 EDT, Copyright 1994, Phillips Publishing, Inc., File:
d0705024.4sd]