SAIC celebrates National Guard IT

Science Applications International Corp. officials are celebrating the early deployment of the worldwide information technology architecture for Army National Guard and Reserve units.

With the installation of hardware for the West Virginia Army National Guard on March 16, SAIC completed deployment of the Reserve Component Automation System architecture 18 months ahead of schedule. The company held a celebration ceremony April 4, SAIC spokeswoman Andrea McCarthy said.

With hardware installation complete, the RCAS team must now finish fielding the software.

RCAS is described in a recent Pentagon report as "an automated information system that supports commanders with information needed for...mobilization and day-to-day administrative operations."

It is a network of workstations that primarily uses commercial off-the-shelf and government off-the-shelf software and will interface with numerous existing and future Standard Army Management Information Systems, certain National Guard standard systems and systems designated by the Office of the Chief, Army Reserve, according to the report from the Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation.

The current RCAS system employs Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT operating system, and office automation tasks are carried out with Microsoft Office applications. Solutions from JetForm Corp. are used to create and maintain forms.

Government off-the-shelf software applications and interfaces will be added in increments and will include the Unit Level Logistics System, the Standard Property Book System-Redesign and the Standard Installation/Division Personnel System Version 3.

The report lists the total program cost of RCAS at $972 million and states that the system performed well during tests conducted in 1999.

SAIC's infrastructure deployment consists of more than 60,000 workstations, 6,000 servers and more than 850,000 pieces of telecommunications equipment to about 3,850 U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard sites in the United States, Guam, American Samoa, Germany, Saipan and the Virgin Islands.