Military Health Care
The Senate Armed Services Committee will place military health care high on
the agenda next year, said the committee's staff director, Les Brownlee. ÒMilitary
health care needs to be addressed, he told a recent meeting of defense industry
executives. ÒWe spend billions of dollars on Tricare but some of those
dollars should be spent on military hospitals, many of which are understaffed
and underfunded, Brownlee said. "What is going on today is not satisfactory."
No More $2B Mistakes?
U.S. Army leaders want to privatize the service's computerized logistics operation,
claiming that contractors have more advanced technology. They are, however,
confronting significant resistance from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers plan to
fight any federal job losses in an election year.
"The Army does not have the expertise in information technology,"
said Lt. Gen. James M. Link, deputy commander of the Army Materiel Command.
"We don't want federal employees to design and maintain the system,"
he told a conference sponsored by the Army Tank Automotive and Armaments Command.
Link described the current computer systems as "dinosaurs" written
in obsolete Cobol language.
If Congress goes along with the privatization, the Army plans to select a contractor
this month and begin a broad "logistics modernization," said Link.
He cited frustration about previous failed attempts by the Army to do the work
in-house. "We spent $2 billion trying to build a system. How many in industry
would survive a $2 billion mistake? Not many."
Defense Exports Debate
One key topic for next year's legislative agenda will be export control regulations
for defense and dual-use technologies, said Les Brownlee, staff director of
the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The problem with the current export control policy, he told defense executives,
is that it does not address "trends in commercialization of defense technology
and the consolidation of industries" in the United States and Europe.
Brownlee noted that his boss, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., is concerned about the
growing dependence of the U.S. military on commercial technologies. Brownlee
will recommend that the committee hold hearings on this subject before any final
decisions are made on relaxing export controls of advanced technology. "We
have not yet identified the security risks of the proliferation of technology"
among potential U.S. enemies, he added.
Privatizing Launches
Once the existing stock of 11 Air Force Titan rockets are fired, the service
has no plans to build any more launchers exclusively for the military, according
to Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters. "This could change," he
told an industry seminar in Washington, D.C., but for the time being, he believes
that the Pentagon is committed to getting out of the launch business. "The
Defense Department is moving from provider to buyer," Peters said. The
reason, he explained, is that use of commercial systems lowers overhead costs.
Currently, he noted, the Pentagon is outsourcing activities at the Kennedy Space
Center, Fla., and Vandenburg Air Force Base, Calif.
New Era of Cooperation?
Marine Commandant Gen. James L. Jones is promising "a new era of cooperation"
between his service and the Navy. "I and [Chief of Naval Operations Adm.]
Jay Johnson intend to deliver on that," he told the recent Expeditionary
Warfare Conference in Panama City, Fla. "Competition is good," he
said, and the natural rivalry between the two services will continue. "But
there's too much to be gained by cooperation." Interoperability, he noted,
is the wave of the future.
Scary Monopolies
The U.S. militaryÕs problems with contractors go back a long way, according
to Marine Maj. Gen. Dennis Krupp, director of the Chief of Naval Operation's
Expeditionary Warfare Division. For example, he cited the Lewis and Clark Expedition,
which explored the western United States at the beginning of the 19th century.
The expedition hired a contractor to build the boats it needed, but there was
a problem.
"The contractor drank," Krupp said. "He didn't work in the morning.
Sometimes, he didn't work all day." But he was the only contractor for
hundreds of miles, so Lewis and Clark had to do business with him. He finally
delivered the boats, months behind schedule. "It was a sole-source contract,"
Krupp said. "We still do business like that. We should do better, and we
will do better."
Critical Connection
When it comes to maintaining security for military networks, it is critical
to make a connection between policy, people and technology, said David Borland,
vice director for Command, Control, Communication, and Computers (DISC4) for
the U.S. Army, "You have to have a work force that understands policy,"
he said. "Without this connection, you have nothing. Policies written in
the industrial age just don't fit anymore with new technology." Borland
made his comment at the Army Information Assurance Industry Days, held recently
in Arlington, Va.
Vulnerable U.S. Ships
Rear Adm. Gordon S. Holder, commander of the Navy's Military Sealift Command,
says his ships, which transport military supplies from the United States to
U.S. forces around the world, need more protection. "We operate ships that
are fairly vulnerable," he told a recent conference. "They have absolutely
no weapons. They're big; they're much less maneuverable than combat ships, and
there's only 25 to 30 people on an entire ship." Still a major concern,
Holder said, is piracy, especially in places such as the South China Sea and
the Strait of Malacca.
European Defense
Although the European Union is moving ahead with plans to establish its own
combined defense force, one able to act independently of the United States don't
expect that unity to happen overnight, cautioned Maj. Gen. Jean-Francois Louvion,
the French military attache to the United States.
"Europe has different cultures, languages and traditions," he told
a recent seminar sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association in
Washington, D.C. "Sovereignty remains a big question."
Y2K Peace Dividend?
The Pentagon spent billions of dollars updating its computers for the year 2000.
The U.S. Air Force believes that investment has resulted in "the best database"
the service has ever had, said Lawrence J. Delaney, assistant secretary of the
Air Force for acquisition. "We've gone through every database and checked
the code" as part of the Y2K upgrade, Delaney said. The knowledge gained,
meanwhile, can be considered a healthy "peace dividend" that will
be retained and applied to Air Force information systems.