The Defense Message System, a program once widely known for its shortcomings, seems to be leveling out for the sustainment phase of deployment.

Last May DMS was granted what the Defense Department calls sustainment status. GCN.com reports, it is now deployed at more than 500 DOD locations worldwide.

The armed services and Defense agencies use DMS to send e-mail messages at all classification levels. The messaging system also lets users send maps, drawings, videos and spreadsheets, and not just text messages.

In the sustainment phase, DOD will continue to tweak the project as it performs system upgrades and technology refreshes.

The main purpose of DMS is to establish a common system for communicating between agencies that now use disparate or non-compatible email systems. And to retire other bulk messaging systems that often required communication specialists to operate.

For more, visit Government Computer News online at GCN.com.

Key military CIOs were grilled last week by a House Armed Services subcommittee. Lawmakers are concerned about the pace of Defense Department transformation. The CIOs included Lieutenant Generals Charles Croom of the Defense Information Systems Agency; and Steve Boutelle of the Army.

The brass said they believe a great deal is being accomplished in military IT. They cited development of the Global Information Grid and preparing to field the DOD Warfighter Information Network.

But lawmakers were skeptical. Republican Jim Saxton of New Jersey questioned how Congress would get more bang for the buck for IT dollars. He noted the military spends $2 billion on it, yet results are hard to measure. Croom noted that DOD experiences only about 2.3 compromised computers per day. The department fends off millions of attacks per year.

For more, visit Government Computer News online at GCN.com.

Military services, the Department of Homeland Security and first responders are getting better acquainted with each other's communications systems. They're all taking part in the Defense Department's Interoperability Communications Exercise.

So called DICE 2006 started February 6. It continues until the end of this week. The exercises are designed to establish whether systems are interoperable. So when an emergency does happen, various agencies and levels of government can communicate effectively and efficiently.

The exercises are going on at the Fort Monroe, Virginia. DICE participants test multifunction mobile units designed to establish channels of communication at even the most devastated scenes.

A leading example of this type of system is the Air Force's Hammer Adaptive Communications Element (Hammer ACE). This is a system than can be delivered to a site, and operational 15 minutes later. It can run on solar power if necessary.

For more, visit Government Computer News online at GCN.com.