http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/ Inside the world of Defense information technology, by veteran reporter Bob Brewin. en Copyright 2012 Fri,10 Feb 2012 20:52:02 GMT http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released a study on the Veterans Affairs Department's treatment of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, which showed that dealing with these invisible wounds of war carries a high financial price tag. In a blog post today, CBO director Douglas W. Elmendorf said the average cost of... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/the_high_cost_of_ptsd_and_traumatic_brain_injury_treatment.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/the_high_cost_of_ptsd_and_traumatic_brain_injury_treatment.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Fri,10 Feb 2012 20:52:02 GMT Last year Marine Brig. Gen. Kevin Nally had it with the term cloud computing, which had morphed into a buzz phrase about as informative as "transformation," a word beloved by Pentagon bureaucracy. So Nally decided the Marine Corps should move toward fog computing, somewhat analogous to cloud computing, as fog... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/how_about_some_fog_computing.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/how_about_some_fog_computing.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Thu,09 Feb 2012 20:07:45 GMT Teri Takai, the Defense Department's chief information officer, said she will not force the four services or Defense organizations to use cloud computing provided by the Defense Information Systems Agency. Though she has promoted DISA as the first choice for cloud computing, Takai, speaking in Colorado Springs, Colo., at a... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/defense_cio_disa_not_sole_cloud_source.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/defense_cio_disa_not_sole_cloud_source.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) cloud computing DISA Wed,08 Feb 2012 20:34:23 GMT When Nextgov first posted my story yesterday that Air Mobility Command wanted to buy 18,000 Apple iPads for its flight crews, I left out what the public affairs folks at AMC considered a key word from the solicitation. In the notice of the upcoming request for proposals, AMC said it... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/enter_the_whats-equal-to-an-apple-ipad_contest.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/enter_the_whats-equal-to-an-apple-ipad_contest.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Tue,07 Feb 2012 22:10:29 GMT File this one under irony. Science Applications International Corp., the outfit that jeopardized the health care records of 4.9 million TRICARE beneficiaries when computer tapes containing the data were stolen from an employee's car, just received a sole-source contract to continue supporting the Defense Department core electronic health record system.... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/saic_wins_more_tricare_business.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/saic_wins_more_tricare_business.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Mon,06 Feb 2012 19:13:12 GMT On Friday, Jan. 27, the Federal Communications Commission kicked off a regulatory review process requested by startup wireless broadband carrier LightSquared to determine whether or not GPS receivers are entitled to interference protection from the company's networks. LightSquared included that petition as an attachment to a separate filing, which in... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/fcc_put_the_cart_before_the_horse_on_lightsquared_deal.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/fcc_put_the_cart_before_the_horse_on_lightsquared_deal.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Fri,03 Feb 2012 21:39:36 GMT The list of subcontractors Northrop Grumman Corp. supplied me with for its $637.8 million Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services contract does not yet include any name brand desktop or laptop computer suppliers, but intriguingly does include a thin client company, Beatty and Company Computing, a small business that hangs... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/navy_shipboard_thin_clients.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/navy_shipboard_thin_clients.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Thu,02 Feb 2012 21:37:59 GMT The original post misstated the size of the LEMV. It has been corrected. The Army's Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) airship has been inflated since last September and has been hanging around in a former dirigible hanger at the old Lakehurst Naval Air Station in southern New Jersey (which now... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/army_airship_floats.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/02/army_airship_floats.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Army Wed,01 Feb 2012 23:04:38 GMT As we all know, Marines really aren't supposed to engage in long land wars as they have done for the past decade in Afghanistan and Iraq (and as they did in Vietnam). They're intended to conduct assaults from amphibious ships, colloquially known as "Gator Freighters." In a return to its... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/va_needs_more_time_for_real_time_location.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/va_needs_more_time_for_real_time_location.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Tue,31 Jan 2012 21:55:12 GMT Teri Takai, the Defense Department's chief information officer, will lose "acquisition specific functions," according to a Jan. 11 memo signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter that was sent to me by a benevolent reader today. That memo, which formally disestablished the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/pentagon_fine-tunes_cio_job_shuts_down_networks_post.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/pentagon_fine-tunes_cio_job_shuts_down_networks_post.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Mon,30 Jan 2012 23:43:34 GMT The Air Force will continue to buy a new specialized version of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft despite plans announced yesterday by the Defense Department to cancel older versions and use manned U-2s instead, Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz told reporters today. Schwartz said the... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/air_force_still_plans_to_buy_some_global_hawks.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/air_force_still_plans_to_buy_some_global_hawks.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Fri,27 Jan 2012 19:00:42 GMT San Diego -- The Navy has a whole bunch of ships -- 286 of them -- loaded with a mess of computer and communications gadgets, but the service's top network guy has no clear idea of what kinds of gizmos have been installed on these vessels over the past decade... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/navy_cant_track_shipboard_gadgets.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/navy_cant_track_shipboard_gadgets.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Thu,26 Jan 2012 19:16:15 GMT The Air Force decided to not buy any more high flying Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft and instead plans to keep manned U-2s in operation through 2020, Reuters reported. This will leave the Air Force with a fleet of 21 Global Hawks, which cost $30 million each, but the Navy... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/air_force_clips_global_hawks_wings.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/air_force_clips_global_hawks_wings.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Wed,25 Jan 2012 21:02:05 GMT San Diego -- The Navy has heard the growing demand for smartphones and mobile computers. Rear Adm. Jerry Burroughs, program executive officer for command, control, computers, communications and intelligence at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command said he's listening and indicated the gadgets will eventually will be deployed. Alas,... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/navy_smartphones.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/navy_smartphones.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Tue,24 Jan 2012 21:40:25 GMT The Veterans Affairs Department said it accidentally released the records of 2,200 living veterans to Ancestry.com in response to a Freedom of Information Act request last month, a data dump that included social security numbers. The family history website, which provides access to genealogical and historical information, had requested information... http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/vas_accidental_ancestry_record_release.php http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2012/01/vas_accidental_ancestry_record_release.php webmaster@nextgov.com (Bob Brewin) Mon,23 Jan 2012 22:28:20 GMT