The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) of the National Ocean Survey (NOS), a component of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has begun a project to establish and operate a 3-station network of permanent observatories to monitor polar-motion and Earth rotation (UT1) by radio interferometric observations of quasars. The project designation is POLARIS (POLar-motion Analysis by Radio Interferometric Surveying).The POLARIS observatories will be equipped with a new generation of instrumentation and software, the Mark III data acquisition and processing system currently under development by a multi-organizational team.