Purchasing power: 'milspec' technology makes a comeback.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: ANALYSIS

A rising propensity to "militarize" the Defense Department's information networks will be making it more difficult for the Pentagon to take advantage of cutting-edge technologies from the commercial sector, say analysts and industry experts.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Pentagon came under huge pressure to cut costs and expedite the design and deployment of new technologies by relying on commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software. The conventional wisdom was that the private sector already was spending billions of research-and-development dollars on new technologies and the Pentagon should capitalize on those private-sector investments.

The 1990s also saw a move to cut back on the use of military specifications--or "milspecs"--in areas where commercial technology was available. Although milspecs were necessary in the design of specialized military gear such as tanks or submarines, Pentagon officials concluded that it was wasteful to spend billions of dollars on overdesigned custom products if there were comparable systems already available in the private sector. At the time, the Defense Department was trying to live clown the infamous milspec-compliant $400 hammers and $800 toilet seats.

The pendulum began to swing in the other direction after the 9/11 attacks and the start of the U.S. war on terrorism. The appetite for cheaper off-the-shelf technologies somewhat diminished as the emphasis shifted to security at all costs. The enormous increases to the Pentagon's budget also removed the incentives to seek lower cost technologies.

Although many of the Pentagon's major acquisition projects employ commercial technologies, industry forecasts point to an expansion of milspecs in military systems, particularly in the areas of information technologies, command-and-control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Collectively, these systems account for more than $80 billion in the Pentagon's fiscal year 2009 budget.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

This market appears to be heading toward "increased militarization, customization and systems integration," says a recent study by the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association.

Fear of intruders and hackers has reached new heights in recent months and also gives Pentagon buyers more reasons to distrust technologies that were not customized to military specifications.

"The cyber problem is one of the reasons why the Defense Department won't take off-the-shelf...