Subscribe to the Free Print Edition!
Celebrating 25 Years

GCN Home > 05/28/07 issue

NMCI expands classified functions in the Pacific

Battle Watch helps coordinate command and control

By Peter Buxbaum, Special to GCN

The Navy’s Pacific Region has inaugurated mission- and operations-related classified communications over the Navy Marine Corps Intranet that centralizes information technology operations in Hawaii and saves the command from having to turn to East Coast facilities for IT support.

The Pacific Theater Battle Watch was officially inaugurated May 8 on Ford Island, Hawaii. PTBW went live at the beginning of this year, following tests held at the end of 2006. The system provides coordination for Navy and Marine Corps operations in the Pacific Region.

Coast to Gulf
The Navy’s Pacific Region encompasses 100 million square miles from the West Coast of the United States to the Arabian Gulf. The region includes 15 command and control centers, 190 ships, 1,400 aircraft, and 213,000 uniformed and civilian workers.

NMCI is one of the world’s largest IT projects, connecting 400,000 computers and half a million users. EDS was awarded the NMCI contract in 2000. The program was troubled in its early years, as EDS wrestled with integrating or isolating thousands of older applications. However, the Navy elected to exercise options to extend the contract, which now has an estimated value of $8.8 billion.

“NMCI was originally built as an administrative system for the unclassified network and the classified network at the secret level,” said Vinnie Madsen, EDS’ vice president and general manager for NMCI in the Pacific Theater. “As NMCI matured and evolved, warfighting commands, especially in the Pacific, started using NMCI for command and control, operations and missions.”

In response, the Pacific Region decided to initiate the PTBW, in essence a large classified capability in the Pacific Theater tied to all Navy and Marine Corps command centers in the region.

“PTBW provides tighter links between command centers,” Madsen said. “We saw the need to partner with the warfighting commands and provide situational awareness for exercises and real-world events.”

PTBW is located with the regional Oahu NMCI Network Operations Center on Ford Island. Other NMCI centers are located in Quantico and Norfolk, Va., and San Diego.

The Ford Island facility was upgraded to operate at the secret level.

“What has happened is that NMCI now provides [Secret IP Router Network] access,” said Linda Newton, deputy chief of staff for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence for the Pacific Fleet, referring to the Defense Department’s classified network.

PTBW’s genesis came about when Madsen was directed to build a system to support the annual “Terminal Fury” cyberwarfare exercise in December 2006. After its success in that exercise, which simulates enemy cyberattacks on NMCI, the PTBW went live Jan. 1.

More news on related topics: Communications / Networks, Defense IT



GCN Popup