OLD EQUIPMENT HINDERS NAVAL RESERVE EFFORTS, Expert says;
by Molly M. Peterson

June 12, 2002 Wednesday

Antiquated information technology -- and a lack of adequate funding to modernize it -- is hampering the Naval Reserve's ability to integrate its operations with those of active-duty forces, a 30-year Navy veteran told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.

"Wear and tear is beginning to catch up with our armed-forces equipment, and the expense of needed procurements is ... being pushed further into the future to avoid visible costs," Capt. Marshall Hanson, director of legislation for the Naval Reserve Association, said in written testimony during a Defense Subcommittee hearing on the fiscal 2003 budget.

Hanson said that although President Bush's budget would earmark an unprecedented $379 billion for the Defense Department, "force planners are tailoring the future more with pruning shears than by using additional bolts of cloth."

That military approach of doing "more with less" is depriving the Naval Reserve of much-needed funds, according to Hanson. For example, the budget includes no funds to help the Reserve modernize its network infrastructure and integrate it with the Navy's "IT-21" at-sea network. Hanson said that project would cost $17 million.

"This money would be earmarked to get the Naval Reserve out of the mire of DOS-based systems, upgrading its legacy software," Hanson said. But efforts to upgrade those systems within the Reserve's existing budget have caused significant problems. For example, Hanson said, efforts to replace an outdated payroll system with the Navy's "standard integrated personnel system" has led to ballooning costs and has prevented some Reservists from getting their paychecks on time.

"The Naval Reserve learned a hard lesson that upgrades in hardware, memory, software, data flow and staffing are needed," Hanson said. "This was an exercise that corporate America has already learned: You can't upgrade computers on the cheap."

Hanson said the Reserve also must spend $8.75 million from its operations budget to enable existing information systems to perform new functions -- and make those systems interoperable with the land-based Navy/Marine Corps Intranet.

That money is not included in the fiscal 2003 budget, and neither is the $6 million it will cost to operate the Reserve's legacy information systems at a minimum performance level next year, without adding any new capabilities, Hanson said.

He urged lawmakers to address the Naval Reserve's unfunded equipment and training requirements, especially in light of the more than 10,000 reservists who are helping to fight the war on terrorism.

"When money is tight, sentiments run against the Reserve components," Hanson said. "Yet, historically, as a crisis arises soon after cuts are planned, it is the [National] Guard and Reserve that are called upon to help combat the threat."