BRIEFING BOOK
Early warning. The
centerpiece of the Air Force’s theater air control system is at risk of year 2000
problems because of poor management at two air logistics centers, the Defense Department
inspector general concluded last month.
The E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, a modified commercial 707 aircraft from
Boeing Co., provides Defense with early warning, air surveillance, combat identification,
and command and control capabilities. The Air Force Materiel Command maintains 32 AWACs
worldwide.
But in a report, Year 2000 Conversion of Logistics and Maintenance Systems in Support
of the Airborne Warning and Control System, the IG said the Oklahoma City and San Antonio
air logistics centers lack documents to account for the center’s progress on its 2000
preparations for the AWACs.
So long Leong-Hong. Belkis Leong-Hong, principal deputy
director and chief information officer of the Defense Security Service, is retiring at the
end of the month after more than 28 years of public service.
She has worked at DOD for more than 17 years.
Leong-Hong joined DSS in June after a three-year stint as deputy assistant secretary of
Defense for command, control, control communications and intelligence plans and resources.
Before that, she worked for 11 years at the former National Bureau of Standards, now
the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The Defense service has not named her replacement.
2001 space odyssey. Space and Technology Development
Corp. of Alexandria, Va., has selected Eastman Kodak Co. to provide an image processing
and archiving system for a $130 million Navy satellite.
The Naval EarthMap Observer satellite, slated for launch in mid-2000, will collect and
transmit imagery data for Navy and commercial applications, including oil and gas
exploration and environmental monitoring.
Eastman Kodak will create a hyperspectral image processing center that will support
high-speed data processing, large-scale image archiving and image distribution.
West Point calculator. The U.S. Military Academy has
selected MathCAD from MathSoft Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., as the standard technical
calculation software for use by all cadets.
The academy recently bought 1,170 copies of MathCAD for the graduating class of 2002.
The military academy also upgraded 3,059 copies of the software now in use at West
Point.
—Gregory Slabodkin
Internet: gslabodkin@gcn.com