============================================================================ SUBJECT: HOUSE PANEL BACKS DIGITIZATION, JOINT TELECOM NETWORK SOURCE: Phillips Publishing via Fulfillment by INDIVIDUAL, Inc. DATE: July 5, 1994 INDEX: [3] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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]