The Army is still using the AirFortress. In fact, other branches have been purchasing it as well.
You are correct in your statement that there is a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) running rampant at the Pentagon. Ever work for a large company where one department doesn't have a clue what another is doing? Same thing. The Army's AirFortress deployment is the largest WLAN security project in the industry, but you'd be surprised how few people at the top hear the news. That will change. As you can imagine, both wireless AND security are hot topics in the post 9/11 world. The AirFortress recently was awarded it's official certification that allows it's sale to the Government (FIPS certification). That will help matters.
Incidentally, the Gov't cannot use any flavor of WEP/Leap - it is not and cannot be FIPS certified. That holds true for the current proposal for "WEP 2" being kicked around by the IEEE 802.11 task group "I".
Don't be surprised, however, to see a lot of contradictory information, direction, and missteps as things move forward. NIST, for example, the very body that certifies encryption products (and so certified the AirFortress) recently issued a paper that essentially suggested using a non-certified solution. Then you have all these people who think IPSec for WLAN is a grand idea. Hey! Let's put these wireless devices outside the corporate firewall and make them VPN in! But isn't the outside of the firewall where all the wolves are? They don't think about that. Too many experts who don't know the whole picture. Heck, maybe I'm one of them.
- Joe