Navy puts NMCI under a new program executive office
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The Navy-Marine Corps Intranet program no longer needs the watchful eye of the assistant secretary of the Navy to ensure that the program is making progress.
PEO EIS: Rear Adm. James B. Godwin III, former program manager for NMCI, will lead the new program executive office.
Rick Steele
Under a memorandum signed recently by Delores M. Etter, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, NMCI no longer falls under the direct-reporting program manager structure. Instead, it and three other DRPMs will be aligned under program executive offices.
DRPMs were designed to give high-level attention to acquisitions deemed challenging. Etter's memorandum implies extra guidance is no longer needed for four of these DRPM programs, although she said in 'exceptional cases' she may establish a DRPM for a fixed, temporary period to resolve specific acquisition issues.
A fifth DRPM for Strategic Systems Programs is unaffected by the changes.
PEO IT replaced
NMCI now falls under the newly established Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems, which replaces PEO IT. The Navy's enterprise resource planning effort, Base Level Information Infrastructure and ONE-NET initiatives also are aligned under PEO EIS, which is headed by Rear Adm. James B. Godwin III, former program manager for NMCI.
Marie Greening, former depu-ty program manager for NMCI, is now acting program manager, while the Navy conducts a search for a permanent replacement, according to the Etter memo.
NMCI is an $8.8 billion program that links voice, video and data communications throughout the Navy.
'After much study and discussion, I think the changes we're initiating today will allow [Etter's office] to more effectively deliver products to the warfighter,' Etter said in a statement. 'I'm satisfied that all of these programs have now progressed to the point where they no longer require my personal supervision. It is my view that whenever possible, program executive officers should lead the Navy's acquisition enterprise.'
New deal
Other programs in addition to NMCI, ERP, BLII and ONE-NET were were also reshuffled under the program executive office structure:
- Distributed Common Ground System-Navy (DCGS-N), will report to the Program Executive Officer for C4I (command, control, communications, computers and intelligence) and Space. DCGS-N will create systems that can receive, process, exploit and disseminate data from airborne and national reconnaissance platforms.
- Advanced Amphibious Assault will move from a DRPM to the Marine Corps Systems Com-mand.
On the move
As PEO EIS, Godwin will also be in charge of long-standing PEO IT initiatives, such as legacy and server consolidation. Steve Ehrler, former PEO IT, is moving to a new assignment. Sources say he may be moving to the Defense Department's Business Transformation Agency and put in charge of the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System.
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