Last week the Navy kicked off its plans to develop, acquire and deploy by the end of 2001 a high-speed intranet to serve 700,000 users at 300 onshore sites at a cost estimated as high as $2 billion.
Joe Cipriano, the Navy's new program executive officer for information technology, said the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet should provide an "end-to-end solution for voice, video and data." At a packed briefing last week in Quantico, Va., Cipriano challenged industry to come up with a "knowledge-based solution" that is "a service, not a commodity."
The N/MCI is designed to serve Navy and Marine Corps users at bases in the continental United States and Hawaii. It will connect to deployed vessels and units through what Cipriano called the "fully funded" Information Technology for the 21st Century project, which will connect bases with ships using commercial networks. Naval and Marine bases overseas also will hook into the intranet, with installation and upgrades covered by other—and in most cases existing—contracts.
The Navy wants to acquire the 450,000- seat network at a "fixed price per seat," according to Ruth Ann Zambolis, the deputy program manager for the project at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (Spawar). Navy and Marine officials at the briefing declined to estimate the total cost of the network, which will be designed to provide end-to-end service, including regional and long-haul communications service, network hardware, desktop PCs and software. Cipriano said it "was in the billions of dollars."
Controlling costs is one of the driving forces behind the new intranet, and the Navy wants to acquire a world-class network at "equal or less costs than we are paying today," Cipriano said. Rear Adm. John Gauss, Spawar commander, last week said that within his command "I spend $6,550 per capita...and if it comes in less than that, I'll save money."
The Navy asked industry to come up with the most creative solutions it could for the intranet. For example, Gauss suggested that bidders could consider wireless local-area networks to serve bases, which would save the cost of stringing cable. Cipriano said the Navy will entertain solutions that include using existing Navy and Marine computers and software.
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