NMCI gets green light

The Navy's initiative to create a single unified network across more than 400,000 shore-based seats passed its most significant milestone since the contract was awarded 17 months ago when the Defense Department chief information officer gave the project the go-ahead to move forward.

On May 3, after an hour-long meeting with Navy officials, Defense CIO John Stenbit and Michael Wynne, deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and technology, approved the $6.9 billion Navy Marine Corps Intranet.

"It was a significant milestone today," said NMCI director Rear Adm. Charles Munns in a briefing that afternoon. "We have achieved the milestone. We are off to order another 100,000 seats."

Under an agreement between Pentagon and Navy officials, the Navy has been permitted to roll out about 60,000 seats as a test of the project's feasibility.

Stenbit did raise three issues:

* The maturity of the system that will be used to monitor the network's performance.

* The ability of the Navy to continue to deal with the scores of legacy systems that are migrating to the NMCI network.

* The ability of EDS to roll out seats at a much faster pace as the project moves forward.

The Navy has also officially requested congressional approval to extend the NMCI contract, Munns confirmed. The Navy would like to adjust the NMCI contract so that the start date coincides with Friday's milestone one approval, thereby giving the Navy more time to use the new network before dealing with questions about the three option years.

NMCI has been plagued with the perception that it has been off-track. Navy officials acknowledge that it is behind the original schedule, but they note that the delays were beyond their control.