MoD in £270m splurge on extra HQ computer terminals
Heads into the 'Above Secret environment'
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The UK MoD has added a further 3,300 network terminals to its massive Defence Information Infrastructure (Future) - or DII(F) - project*. These new machines will be specifically intended for command of military operations from frontline headquarters nodes.
Under DII(F) the MoD has a £2.3bn contract with a consortium of companies - dubbed ATLAS - including EDS (as Prime Contractor), Fujitsu, EADS, General Dynamics, and LogicaCMG. ATLAS has now delivered over 10,000 UADs (user access devices) in total, and the MoD says "the programme has now moved into a phase of high volume roll-out... Ultimately, it will provide around 300,000 user accounts on approximately 150,000 terminals across about 2,000 MoD sites worldwide".
The initial Increment 1 of DII(F) was mainly intended to handle ordinary information classed not higher than Secret at fixed locations. Increment 2, now coming through the pipeline, is for deployed locations and "services to the Above Secret environment".
(For a quick digest of UK military secrecy classifications, see here.)
The MoD announced this week that the DII(F) contract has just been amended to incorporate a £270m "2b" increment for the delivery of a further 3,300 terminals, of which 1,900 will be deployable to headquarters on the ground and on board Royal Navy ships. This works out at almost £82,000 per machine, though of course this figure includes integration, networking, security etc etc.
Bob Quick, the MoD's project manager, said: "This is a first step in enhancing deployable capability to forces deployed to theatres such as Iraq and Afghanistan."
The extra machines will replace various older bits of kit which "are approaching obsolescence and have been identified as a risk to successful operations". ®
*Presumably at some point to become DII(Present) and then perhaps DII(Past).
COMMENTS
Title
i still work for atlas and its a joke, there are contractors on 300 a day while permanent staff - in positions of high responsibility get a lowly 16 1/2K basic - welcome to the real world though folks, the machines do cost alot - 5-600 a machine, then support etc on top for however long - it all adds up - plus the huge bill to Microsoft for their "secure" xp build, then you have the telephony system to support the user (Single Point Of Contact) - and the Huge Amount the Software distribution costs (Via HP - and no, it doesnt work - and yes as contractors they are on a bucket of money a day - new BMW's all round in that department) all im saying is dont blame Fujitsu/EDS - look at BT, and HP, and Microsoft and the ridiculous amounts they are charging - and to the person above who worked in the armed forces apparently on "F" Terminals - thats odd as F terminals arnt in the Theater of War yet as we know they arnt ready - you may have used "c" terminals and those where Fujitsu ONLY - nothing to do with Atlas
@ Anonymous & Ben
Anonymous - Agree with you there, as far as I can tell, just about any project, IT related or not is almost always fcuked up from start (if they actually do) to end... the point I was making was that defence spending is very poor, not that any other govt projects are any better! :)
Ben - I should have clarified my point. I know EDS/Fujitsu are not British, what I meant to say was I have been at the sharp end of the equipment and systems they send out for the end customers to use and everytime they have, it has been a total joke. Everything is enormously overpriced and under spec'ed. If you are lucky, you might get a something that is 10 years out of date for 10 times the price you could put it together yourself for. Spares are even worse...
This is not to say that only the americans are ripping us off, we can do that very well ourselves..
EDS/Fujitsu British?
Graham Human, EDS and Fujitsu are not British, and believe me they are kicking at the heels to "offshore". I was the guy that worked for Atlas, my first job at EDS was "off shored" to Hungary. If it wasn't for the UK Govt insisting that the likes of Rolls Royce, Defence, BP and the prison service accounts remained in the UK these companies would have moved these key British companies sensitive details to developing countries with no regard for our national security. While I couldn't possibly know how they can justify the costs displayed here, I think we should be willing to pay a little more to keep this stuff in the UK (and I think my ex colleagues would agree!).
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