Inside Defense
Oct 19, 2009 -- Defense Department leaders are pondering how to breathe new life into a command-and-control program -- once set to expire -- now that its intended successor is progressing too slowly, according to defense officials.
The recently unveiled conference agreement on the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill requires defense officials to craft a report detailing how they see the marriage of the existing Global Command and Control System-Joint with the troubled Net-Enabled Command Capability effort. Citing significant schedule slips and department infighting, lawmakers directed DOD to stop development on the NECC and use the project's results so far to modernize the GCCS program.
“The department is in the process of re-evaluating the way ahead for modernizing the Global Command and Control System - Family of Systems,” Defense Information Systems Agency acquisition chief Anthony Montemarano wrote in a statement, forwarded by a spokesman. “The approach taken in the Net Enabled Command Capability (NECC) program has not been responsive enough to meet the needs of our joint warfighters,” the statement said.
DOD's original plan was to migrate service-specific versions of the Global Command and Control System to NECC in 2012.
A significant novelty of the new system was to be its service-oriented architecture, which enables Web-based operation. DISA officials said over the summer they want to keep the SOA approach, regardless of NECC's fate.
“As for how specifically this program will progress, the department is discussing the details for the way ahead, and [Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter] will make the final determination,” Montemarano's statement reads.
In their conference language, lawmakers indicated what questions they want to see answered. The required report on the modernized GCCS program must spell out how much the effort would cost and what technical problems must first be solved, according to the conference agreement. -- Sebastian Sprenger
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