Navy intranet hits money snag

The Navy can't afford to pay for its plan to build a Navy/Marine Corps Intranet

without sacrificing funds earmarked for critical operations, senior Navy

commanders said this week.

Senior admirals met behind closed doors this week with Navy chief information

officer Dan Porter, the vice chief of naval operations Adm. Donald Pilling,

and other N/MCI officials to discuss how the Navy plans to pay for its $16

billion intranet proposal.

The purpose of the meeting was to identify the Navy's total annual information

technology budget requirements that would be included under N/MCI, and to

determine how much money the service has actually identified.

According to a senior Navy official present at the negotiations, Navy

and Marine Corps commands reported a total of $2.1 billion in IT requirements

each year — much higher than the $1.52 billion originally estimated.

However, the Navy has only identified about $800 million in available

funding, the official said. Likewise, the Marine Corps identified roughly

$460 million in requirements but could only come up with $200 million to

pay for it, said the official.