DOD Briefing Book
Connecting state and local government leaders
Air Force officials at the Standard Systems Group in Montgomery, Ala., are hoping to become the first alternative source of software components compatible with the Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment (DII COE). The Defense Information Systems Agency currently supplies portions of the COE for free to qualified developers. Now, under the Global Combat Support System-Air Force contract, contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. will be adapting its own version of the COE to the DISA standards.
Air Force officials at the Standard Systems Group in Montgomery, Ala., are hoping to
become the first alternative source of software components compatible with the Defense
Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment (DII COE).
The Defense Information Systems Agency currently supplies portions of the COE for free
to qualified developers. Now, under the Global Combat Support System-Air Force contract,
contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. will be adapting its own version of the COE to the DISA
standards. The GCSS-AF contract is open to all military and civilian agencies.
The General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals is no longer taking
protests, but it still has to clean up some administrative business to clean up.
One example: its decision on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s protest of the Army Workstation 1
procurement. The ruling, which the board granted in part, remains under a protective
order. The Army awarded the $594 million contract to Hewlett-Packard Co. and Digital
Equipment Corp. in May.
A publicly available ruling was expected late last week on what the Army must do to get
the buy rolling. But it seem unlikely that ordering will start before the end of fiscal
1996.
The Navy has again upgraded the server options on its three Computer-Aided Design 2
contracts. Users now can order four new Pentium servers from Intergraph Corp. of
Huntsville, Ala: the InterServe MP-610 150-MHz Pentium Pro, the MP-620 with dual 150-MHz
Pentium Pro processors, the MP-630 with dual 200-MHz Pentium Pro processors and the MP-640
with four 200-MHz chips.
Air Force Lt. Gen. George T. Babbitt will take over as director of the Defense
Logistics Agency on Oct. 25, following the retirement of Vice Adm. Edward M. Straw.
Babbitt left a senior post at DLA a little more than a year ago to become deputy chief
of staff for logistics at Air Force headquarters. Straw, who concludes a 35-year Navy
career, has been DLA director since 1992.
Year 2000 gurus at each of the services are keeping mum about their initial estimates
on the total cost of fixing up systems to handle dates after Dec. 31, 1999.
Never mind that formulas for calculating such costs are said to be about as reliable as
a tarot card reading. The point is not to be the service that comes in with the biggest
bill. ""We've heard that our estimate is much lower than the Army and Air
Force,'' said a sanguine Navy source.
The numbers are due at the Pentagon by Sept. 15. Expect last-minute downward revisions.