Maintaining legacy communications systems is expensive and can leave military services like the Navy and Marine Corps behind.

During AFCEA West in San Diego, Verizon Navy and Marine Corps Public Sector Director David Reaves explained how he’s seeing the Navy’s challenges in modernizing voice and data communications, focusing on the Defense Department’s mandate to transition from outdated systems to IP-based infrastructure.

Reaves said that the high cost and difficulty of maintaining legacy systems means that the Navy should modernize to an enterprise-wide deployment strategy to ensure consistency and cost-effectiveness across bases.

Reaves also discussed the importance of converging voice and data networks for operational efficiency and explained how the Navy can leverage existing contracts to streamline the acquisition of modern technologies like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).