A new process promises more advance word on what the Pentagon wants from its military services, but demands they comply with common architectures. DoD said it is learning from development mistakes of the past.
The U.S. Army's $47 billion in annual military payroll accounts has caused major woes for some soldiers trying to collect their pay, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. As a result of the Army being unable to track and collect data on numerous pay errors including over payments, under payments, data entry errors and fraud, active duty soldiers are not receiving the correct compensation and this has a bipartisan team of lawmakers furious.
Lt. Col. Bobby Saxon, the division chief for the Army Enterprise Management Decision Support system, said a new dashboard will present data in a more user-friendly way for senior leaders to make decisions about warfighters. December 13, 2012
A bipartisan group of senators has written to top Army officials to express concern about delays in the suspension and debarment process that leave the service open to contracting waste and fraud. In a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh and Chief of Staff Raymond Odierno, the senators questioned "significant time lapses" between referrals for suspension and actual debarment of contractors in Afghanistan.
Host Derrick Dortch hosts a roundtable discussion of a new initiatiave to help transitioning veterans find jobs once they leave the military. December 7, 2012(Encore presentation December 21, 2012 & December 28, 2012)
Just two years ago, Arlington National Cemetery was plagued by mismarked and unidentified gravesites and incomplete paper records. Now, the Army has at its disposal a massive, GPS-enabled digital database of every gravesite. And what's more — the cemetery has made the database available to the public via its website and a mobile application.
The Army's Contracting Command will inactivate its National Capital Region contracting center in July of 2013, one of six it currently operates around the country. The move is partially intended to let the command decrease its turnover rate for acquisition talent.
Twenty large and small vendors won a spot on the five-year Global Tactical Advanced Communications Systems contract.
The Pentagon's Office of the Chief of Public Affairs is training the military's social media practitioners how to get information out quickly, securely and, most importantly, accurately during emergencies like the recent superstorm that hit the East Coast.
Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said the service wants to bring more uniformed men and women into the institutional Army. He said they have relied too much on civilian employees and contractors over the last decade. Odierno said the Army also has to change the way it trains its leaders to be more adaptable.
Terry Edwards, the director of the Office of the Chief Systems Engineer and chief information officer for the assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology, said his office helps acquire technology and ensure standards are met. November 1, 2012(Encore presentation December 27, 2012)
A National Research Council report recommended Congress and the White House take a broader view at planning and allocating funds for the resources maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The service's new acquisition strategy tries to imagine the Army's needs over the next three decades as the focus shifts away from large counterinsurgency and stability operations.
Two brigades of the Army's 10th Mountain Division are training on a ready-to-go set of networking capabilities as they prepare to deploy to Afghanistan. The IT comes out of the Network Integration Evaluation process.
Computer Sciences Corporation's David Rohret explains what federal networks look like from a would-be hacker's point of view. Plus, Federal Drive broadcasts live from the AUSA Conference in Washington.