（In this 1998 USAF file photo, an airman uses a computer that was probably as slow as the ones in use today. ）

（在这张 1998 年美国空军档案照片中，一名空军人员使用的计算机可能与今天使用的计算机一样慢。）

Back in January, a frustrated Air Force employee made waves and caught senior military leaders’ attention when he penned a viral open letter calling for the Pentagon to repair the military’s aging computer infrastructure. “Yesterday, I spent an hour waiting just to log on,” wrote Michael Kanaan, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Scholar Masters fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, at the time. “Want innovation? You lost literally HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of employee hours last year because computers don’t work. Fix our computers.”

早在 1 月份，一名沮丧的空军员工写了一封病毒式传播开的公开信，呼吁五角大楼修复军队老化的计算机基础设施，引起了轰动并吸引了军方高级领导人的注意。
“昨天，我花了一个小时等待登录电脑，”现任哈佛肯尼迪学院空军硕士研究员的参谋长迈克尔卡南写道。“还想要创新吗？去年，由于计算机无法工作，你们实际上损失了数以万计的员工工时，去修好我们的电脑。”

The term #fixourcomputers soon became viral internet shorthand for addressing computer and information technology issues across the Air Force—as well as the Defense Department and the government as a whole—and now, it appears to have stuck with the highest levels of service leadership. Earlier this month, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall wrote a memo for the entire branch where he announced his team has made a “significant” start towards resolving the issue.

“修好我们的电脑” 一词很快成为病毒式互联网流行语，为了用于解决整个空军—以及国防部和整个政府—的计算机和信息技术问题，而现在，这个词似乎已经与最高级别的服务领导层缠在一起了。本月早些时候，空军部长弗兰克·肯德尔（Frank Kendall）为整个部门写了一份备忘录，他宣布他的团队在解决问题方面取得了“显著”的开端。

“I have also appreciated the hard work that has gone into roughly a dozen specific management initiatives, our efforts to identify opportunities to improve the management of the headquarters and the enterprise overall,” Kendall wrote in his August 1 memo, which recapped his first year as branch secretary. “As a result, we have been able to make a significant down payment to improve our IT and cyber posture – in other words, to fix our computers.”

肯德尔在 8 月 1 日的备忘录中写道：“我也很感谢大约十几个具体的管理举措所要求的，已经付出的辛勤工作，我们努力寻找机会来改善总部和项目的整体管理，”这个备忘录还回顾了他的第一年作为分部门秘书的类似经历。“因此，我们能够投入大量的分阶段经费来改善我们的 IT 和网络状况—换句话说，就是修复我们的计算机。”

That commitment from the top is important because decrepit or malfunctioning computers are not just inconvenient – they could also undermine national security. One airman who works in cybersecurity said it’s “literally impossible to do our jobs at times.”
“Menial tasks take exponentially longer than needed due to a cornucopia of intensive security software running on hardware that’s always at least three years behind in specifications,” said the airman, who preferred to stay anonymous since he is still in the military. “Even when a ‘refresh’ happens it seems like a Band-Aid that was purchased 2-3 years ago and finally gets through bureaucratic hell to make it to the end user. It’s obsolete before we even get it.”

高层的承诺很重要，因为老化或有故障的计算机不仅带来不便—它们还可能破坏国家安全。一位从事网络安全工作的空军人员表示，“有时我们根本无法完成我们的工作”。
“由于硬件相比在上面运行的复杂型安全软件的规格总是至少落后三年，因此繁琐的任务比所要求的时间要长得多，”这位空军人员说道，由于他仍在军队中服役，他希望保持匿名。“即使有‘翻新’发生，它似乎也像是 2-3 年前购买的创可贴，最终通过地狱式的官僚系统将其提供给最终用户，在我们得到它之前它就已经过时了。”

That’s a tough situation for cybersecurity operators, who work in a field that the Department of Defense has identified as a “huge concern” both for national security and for the public and private civilian sectors. The anonymous airman likened it to a special forces soldier deploying to battle with obsolete weapons and gear.
“The SF guy needs and uses his [gear] every day,” the airman said. “He needs the best of the best. In theory, those who need the best stuff have some better things.”

对于网络安全操作人员来说，这是一个艰难的局面，他们在国防部认定为国家安全以及公共和私营民用部门都“重大关切”的领域工作。这位匿名空军人员将这比作一名特种部队士兵使用过时的武器和装备进行战斗。
“特种部队的家伙每天都需要并使用他的 [装备]，”这个空军人员说道。“他需要最好最好的，理论上，那些需要最好东西的人在做着更重要的事情。”

Instead, the airman said cybersecurity airmen are often stuck with the computer equivalent of an old flak jacket or an ancient rifle, or they operate with the same personal computer issued to other non-cybersecurity airmen. Those computers, as is often pointed out on social media, are not the fastest. In fact, earlier this month, an Air Force reservist put together an infographic comparing the time it takes him to do basic tasks on his personal computer versus on his Air Force computer. On average, he found that the Air Force computer was 5.4 times slower. For example, powering up his personal computer, logging in and checking email took one minute and 16 seconds, while doing the same tasks on his Air Force computer took eight minutes and 31 seconds.
While some of that difference was due to Stone’s personal computer having a better processor than his Air Force one, some of it was because the Air Force computer was overloaded with a mess of different required software.

相反，这位空军人员说，空军网络安全人员经常被困在相当于旧防弹夹克或古老步枪的计算机上，或者他们使用发给其他非网络安全人员的，同一台的个人计算机进行操作。正如社交媒体上经常指出的那样，那些计算机并不是最快的。事实上，本月早些时候，一名空军预备役人员制作了一张信息图表，比较了他在自己私人电脑上和在空军电脑上完成基本任务所需的时间。平均而言，他发现空军电脑的速度要慢 5.4 倍。例如，打开他的私人电脑、登录和查看电子邮件需要 1 分 16 秒，而在他的空军电脑上执行相同的任务需要 8 分 31 秒。
虽然其中一些差异是由于斯通的私人电脑比他的空军电脑有更好的处理器，但也有一些是因为空军电脑上充斥着大量不同的所需软件。

“Five minutes after startup, my personal computer had reached a comfortable idle state while the Air Force CPU was still thrashing with McAfee, Tanium, and a bunch of other stuff,” wrote Barron Stone, a technical product manager and Air Force reservist, on his lixedIn page.
Stone acknowledged that the data gathered in his small study may not be statistically significant, but it still points out the fact that it’s not just the age of the computers that matter: it’s what’s on them.
“The path to #fixourcomputers isn’t to simply buy newer, beefier computers (though that will certainly help),” Stone wrote. “We’ve got to untangle the web of configuration scxts and software bloat dragging down our machines.”
Like Kanaan’s letter in January, Stone’s small study struck a chord with service members and made the rounds online, appearing on the unofficial Air Force subreddit, the popular Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco, and the widely-read Air Force newsletter, The Merge.

“启动五分钟后，我的个人电脑进入了舒适的空闲状态，而空军电脑CPU 仍在与 McAfee、Tanium 和一堆其他东西打交道，”技术产品经理兼空军预备役人员巴伦斯通在他的lixedIn页面写道。
斯通承认，在他的个人案例中收集的数据可能没有统计学意义，但它仍然指出了一个事实，即重要的不仅仅是计算机的年龄，还有计算机上的内容。
“通往“修好我们的电脑”的道路不是简单地购买更新的、更强大的计算机（尽管这肯定会有所帮助），”斯通写道。“我们必须解开拖累我们机器的网，由于大量文件和软件膨胀所造成的网。”
就像卡南在一月份的信里写的一样，斯通的个人研究引起了军人的共鸣，并在网上流传，出现在非官方的空军subreddit、流行的 Facebook 页面（空军 amn/nco/snco）和广为浏览的空军通讯The Merge上。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


“What’s it like to have a computer that takes less than 10 minutes to log in and get running?” wrote one Reddit user. “Mine takes 20 on a good day.”
Stone emphasized that raging at the Pentagon may not fix the issue.
“We can also continue shouting at the DoD as if it’s a dastardly villain, twirling its long mustache whilst intentionally slowing down our computers and laughing, ‘muahahahaha!’” he wrote on lixedIn. “I doubt that will fix any problems… but it is kinda fun.”
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall does not have a mustache to twirl, but what did he mean by making a “down payment” to improve the situation? Laura McAndrews, a spokesperson for the Air Force, said investing in the branch’s IT and cyber capabilities was one of several operational imperatives and management initiatives meant to prepare the Air Force for “challenges from pacing threats” (that’s Pentagon-ese for China) that Kendall presented the service with shortly after entering office.

“拥有一台只需不到 10 分钟即可登录并开始运行的电脑是什么感觉？”一位红迪用户写道。“我的电脑一天需要 20 分钟。”
斯通强调，在五角大楼发火可能无法解决问题。
他在lixedIn上写道：“我们还可以继续对国防部大喊大叫，就好像它是一个卑鄙的恶棍一样，一边转动着长长的小胡子，一边故意放慢我们的电脑速度并大笑，‘哇哈哈！’”。“我怀疑这样会不会解决任何问题……但这很有趣。”
空军部长弗兰克·肯德尔 (Frank Kendall) 没有留胡子，但他所说的“分阶段付经费”以改善情况是什么意思？空军发言人劳拉·麦克安德鲁斯 (Laura McAndrews) 表示，投入经费于该部门的 IT 和网络能力是旨在让空军为“步步紧逼的挑战”（这是五角大楼对中国挑战的称呼）做好准备的几项作战任务和管理举措之一，肯德尔上任后不久就提供了这项服务。

McAndrews said the IT investments would be aimed at improving organizational efficiency, specifically achieving “financial performance improvements.” It would also have the effect of making it easier for the Air Force and the Space Force to achieve the other initiatives, like developing an ambitious communications network for connecting service members downrange or keeping comms open in a contested environment. One of the IT efforts is called Project Phoenix, which McAndrews said “is an effort to leverage the user experience and warfighter connectivity data the Department of the Air Force already collects to drive faster improvements for the warfighters.”

麦克安德鲁斯表示，IT 投资将旨在提高组织效率，特别是实现“财务绩效改进”，它还将使空军和太空部队更容易实现其他目标措施，例如开发一个雄心勃勃的通信网络，用于连接服务人员的近距离通信或在复杂环境中保持通信畅通。其中一项 IT 工作被称为凤凰计划，麦克安德鲁斯表示，该计划“旨在优化空军部门的用户体验，优化空军部门已经收集的作战人员衔接数据，来推动作战人员更快的进步。”
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida seems to have implemented a kind of Project Phoenix when it upxed its communication infrastructure in 2021 with upgraded phones, enhanced Wi-Fi, stronger in-building wireless service, a base area network upxe and a wide area network redesign. The goal was to make the network faster and more reliable, according to a press release at the time.
“A key focus area for the transition to wartime posture effort is the elimination of technical debt, especially on Department of the Air Force networks,” McAndrews said. “Aging network infrastructure serves as not only a potential vulnerability but also as a pain point when its poor performance throttles users’ access to the data they need to complete their mission.”

佛罗里达州廷德尔空军基地在 2021 年更新其通信基础设施时，似乎实施了一种凤凰计划，升级了手机、增强了 Wi-Fi、更强大的室内无线服务、基地局域网的更新和广域网的重新设计，根据当时的新闻稿，目标是让网络更快、更可靠。
麦克安德鲁斯说：“向战时姿态过渡的一个关键重点领域是消除技术欠债，尤其是在空军网络方面。” “老化的网络基础设施不仅是一个潜在的漏洞，而且当其糟糕的性能限制用户访问完成任务所需的数据时，它还是一个痛点。”

McAndrews did not provide a dollar estimate for the investments made so far, but she said user scores have gone up 14% over the past six months on the Department of the Air Force User Experience survey, which she said focuses specifically on IT experience. She also said that a recent project the Air Force completed “improved performance on our oldest machines by 20%.” McAndrews said the machines were located across the Department of the Air Force.
“We’ve seen increasing support from senior leadership to accelerate refresh of endpoints and network equipment, which is the largest drive of user experience,” the spokesperson added.

麦克安德鲁斯没有提供迄今为止所投入的美元估算值，但她表示，在过去六个月中，在空军用户体验调查中，用户得分上升了 百分之十四，她说该调查特别关注 IT 体验。她还说，空军最近完成了一个项目，名为“将我们最古老的机器的性能提高了 20%”。麦克安德鲁斯说，这些机器遍布空军部门。
“我们已经看到高层领导越来越支持去加快电脑终端和网络设备的更新，这是提升用户体验的最大推动力，”发言人补充说。

The hope is that these investments will make it easier to provision and manage modern hardware, optimize and automatically patch that hardware “and allow warfighters to easily consume cloud-based software, all leading to a more productive user experience for warfighter effect,” she said.
It may take time for an average airman to experience these changes firsthand. As Barron Stone, the Air Force veteran, wrote on lixedIn, fixing Air Force computers is a complicated issue that can’t be solved by simply buying new computers or yelling at the Pentagon.
“Enterprise IT is a system or systems of systems, of systems, of systems … not an easy knot to untangle,” Stone said.
Still, Secretary Kendall likely knew what he was referring to when he used the phrase “fix our computers” in his memo, and without Kanaan raising a fuss back in January, it may not have appeared there.
“Good post Barron Stone,” one Marine Corps veteran wrote on lixedIn in response to Stone’s infographic. “Quantifying and visualizing the pain is the only way to facilitate change.”

希望这些投资将使现代硬件的配置和管理变得更加容易，优化和自动修补该硬件，并允许作战人员轻松使用基于云的软件，所有这些都将为作战人员带来更高效的用户体验，”她说.
普通空军人员可能需要时间亲身体验这些变化。正如空军老兵巴伦斯通在 lixedIn 上所写的那样，修理空军计算机是一个复杂的问题，不能通过简单地购买新计算机或对五角大楼大喊大叫来解决。
“整个项目的 IT 是一个或多个系统、更多个系统、更多个系统的系统……不容易解决，”斯通说。
尽管如此，肯德尔部长在他的备忘录中使用“修理我们的电脑”这个词时可能已知道他指的是什么，如果没有卡南在一月份大呼小叫，这个词可能不会出现在那里。
“好帖子，巴伦斯通，”一位海军陆战队退伍军人在 lixedIn 上回应斯通的信息图表时写道。“把痛苦量化和可视化是促进改变的唯一途径。”