Some pictures:
Images takes from militaryglobal.com/gallery
Posted on 12/08/2006 6:45:43 AM PST by Srirangan
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and partner Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) [NYSE: SAI], acting as the Lead Systems Integrator for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, today announced the selection of IBM Corporation's Global Business Systems division of Bethesda, Md., as the provider of Logistics Data Management Service (LDMS) for FCS. LDMS is the FCS sustainment and supportability data management service that will be tightly integrated with the Army's Logistics Enterprise.
"LDMS will provide a network-enabled, performance-based logistics solution for the U.S. Army that will reduce the logistics footprint, increase operational availability and significantly lower life-cycle costs for FCS Brigade Combat Teams," said Dennis Muilenburg, vice president-general manager of Boeing Combat Systems and FCS program manager. "IBM has demonstrated that it is uniquely qualified to provide these capabilities for our nation's soldiers and will be a tremendous addition to the FCS best-of-industry One Team."
The LDMS will provide unprecedented access to complete life-cycle data for FCS logistics support, as well as configuration management, data analysis, and forecasting and planning. It will enable the collection, reporting and collaboration of logistics data on customer demands received from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Standard Army Management Information Systems and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems. LDMS also will provide the status and location of national-level assets of FCS spares and repair parts from DoD, Army and partner systems.
It isn't. They sold off their PC division to a Chinese compnay. The business services division is fully US based.
"It isn't. They sold off their PC division to a Chinese compnay. The business services division is fully US based."
Yes but have you ever met IBM people? They might as well be from a different planet. Not to mention how badly they've screwed up their big outsourcing customers in the past. IMO, this doesn't bode well for the effort.
It's probably a safe bet that everyone working on the contract was required to have DOD clearance.
Absolutely. And these toys will be controls by wireless networks far far away, maybe even in space.
Future warfare will be like playing a game on your PS3. :-)
Big deal, so is Exxon, Wallmart, HP, GE. EDS, ect.
I hate to be cynical but between the large multinationals, of which IBM is one of the front runners, that are doing everything they can to erase national borders and the traitorous liberals, we won't be able to fight a war in the future anyway so none of these devices and strategies matter.
"It isn't. They sold off their PC division to a Chinese compnay. The business services division is fully US based."
They just moved a sales division to China too. They are planning on 40,000 employees in India and I don't know how many in China. They are building/have built large research facilities in China and India (you think they're secure?) and are planning on moving all support offshore. They've already moved our level 2 support to India (server and storage).
Sam Palmisano said the PC division wasn't making a profit then the Chinese turned around and with the same old useless American workers made a profit in their first quarter. IBM said the printer division wasn't making a profit so they sold it and it's doing fine now with the same old American workers.
If you move R&D offshore to two potentially hostile countries and want to use the results for our military you've got a security problem. The military will probably require them to do it onshore but IBM is so "globalized" that leaks and spying are inevitable. They caught two Chinese spys in one of their tech divisions a few years ago.
Agreed.
Just how many lines of that code do you suppose are going to be written by U.S. citizens?
My guess is little to none.
Easter egg, anyone?
I have been an IBM employee for the past 17 years and I must say you are full of horses@#t.
"I have been an IBM employee for the past 17 years and I must say you are full of horses@#t."
There are some things IBM does very well. There are some things they do very poorly. Look at the outsourcing deals they've managed and you'll see what I mean. Saw them first hand and IBM did NOT handle them well.
I'm sure soldiers in Iraq now would love to be fighting future conflicts that way, but don't believe everything you read. The enemy usually isn't stupid.
Agreed. I'm a consultant who works very closely with them and have always been impressed. The only thing is you have to learn to tolerate their sending you the sales folks, hey, that's just part of business.
And when I have a hot problem, I don't even bother calling 1-800-IBM-SERV
I have managed over the years to get a pretty good network of techies, so I go right to the source.
My hope is that companies like IBM can learn to compete in what is normally General Dynamic's arena, but not acquire the taint that goes with it.
"My hope is that companies like IBM can learn to compete in what is normally General Dynamic's arena, but not acquire the taint that goes with it."
There's nothing special about IBM that would keep it from the greed and dishonesty that encompasses many other companies.
We are taking the best that we have and giving it away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.