Information Warfare: April 26, 2003

Archives

The Department of Defense has awarded computer services firm EDS a $258 million contract to upgrade Department of Defense communications systems so that they could better survive an attack like the September 11, 2001 on the Pentagon (or worse). That incident actually did considerable damage to Department of Defense communications. The Navy's Telecommunications Operations Center was severely damaged and several other operations were temporarily put out of action (like the Army's Information Management Support Center and the National Military Command Center). As was the case with civilian communications in downtown Manhattan, no one knew how concentrated and vulnerable facilities were until the two towers came down and put millions of communications lines out of action.