DOD seeks net-centric programs

Candidates are due by the end of the month.

By the end of the month, military services and Defense agencies must submit candidates for the program that helps accelerate the Defense Department's evolving network-centric warfare strategy.

Military officials plan to choose 10 to 20 programs for fiscal 2005 in the Rapid Acquisition Incentives-Net Centricity initiative. DOD officials want technologies that facilitate posting and sharing of data for warfighters and analysts, according to a memorandum released last month by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration and Chief Information Officer.

"Pilots submitted by DOD components should support transformed DOD business processes, which demonstrate the applicability of net-centric enterprise services such as collaboration, messaging, information assurance, storage and Web-enabled applications," Priscilla Guthrie, deputy department CIO, said in the memo.

Each pilot test should take six to 12 months to complete. The services and the agencies can submit program candidates on the DOD CIO's Web site at www.dod.mil/nii/.

For more information, call Jim Mulder at (703) 604-1489, ext. 126, or e-mail him at jim.mulder@osd.mil.