Route Fifty

Pilot's tale of Bosnia rescue lands on Net

Even as Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady deflected reporters' questions about the details of his rescue from Bosnia, thousands of Internet surfers around the world were getting a vivid, blow-by-blow description of the mission as told by an Air Force pilot who took part in the mission. GCN has learned that the report, laced with expletives and Air Force jargon, included detailed descriptions of flight procedures, radio frequencies and weapons systems used by the Air

By Paul Constance
August 28, 1995

Distributed war games network will serve up intense conflicts

Pentagon brass are getting ready for the ultimate war exercise, one that will replicate the sudden and sweeping changes that occur in a major conflict. This exercise, however, will be carried out exclusively within the confines of an advanced global modeling and simulation network. Unlike current virtual war games, in which dedicated computers and networks simulate a few weapons systems in a narrowly defined combat environment, Defense Department developers foresee a simulation system that includes

By Paul Constance
August 28, 1995

White House retreats on clipper mandate

Cementing the Clinton administration's retreat from a centrally imposed encryption policy, a new joint defense-civilian board has pledged to accommodate a mix of commercial and federal methods for protecting electronic transactions. "This administration is not going to come out and say you have to use this or that product" to conduct electronic business with the government, said Deane Erwin, a co-chairman of the Security Infrastructure Program Management Office (SI-PMO) and director of materiel and logistics

By Paul Constance
August 22, 1995

Now hear this--sidebar

For the first wave of acquisitions to build the Defense Department's new global network, the Defense Information Systems Agency has divided the requirements into four buys. One contractor will build and run the basic network architecture for the Defense Information Systems Network. As many as nine contractors will provide DISN transmission services. One contractor will meet the department's worldwide videoteleconferencing needs. And finally, one contractor will be DISA's helping hand for the DISN program.

By Paul Constance
August 8, 1995

All talk and no action sums up DOD systems security budget

The vulnerability of Defense Department information systems is ""the major security challenge of this decade and possibly of the next century,'' according to a landmark Pentagon study. But a review of next year's Defense budget suggests Congress and DOD aren't really that concerned. Few topics grab headlines like the unrelenting penetration of DOD networks by hackers. When the Joint Security Commission reported in February 1994 that ""we have neither come to grips with the enormity

By Paul Constance
August 8, 1995

Now hear this: We're listening

The Pentagon is embarking on a radically new approach to managing and operating its global information transport needs, judging from the solicitations for the Defense Information Systems Network. For as long as computers have been around, DOD has bought and operated its own communications switches and network multiplexers, and in some cases, even the connecting copper and fiber-optic lines. Industry's role has been limited largely to providing dumb pipes that link DOD's far-flung installations.

By Paul Constance
August 8, 1995

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