Army Breaks Ground On Cyber Command Center In Augusta Today
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the Army’s Cyber Command Center that will be located at Fort Gordon in Augusta. Today, the Army breaks ground on their new command center facility. From a presser:
New facilities supporting Army Cyber Operations and Command and Control functions will be constructed during the first phase of the project, planned for completion in May 2018 at a cost of $85.1 million. In August 2016 the Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District contracted B.L. Harbert International, LLC, of Birmingham, Alabama to carry out the construction.
The second phase of construction to support Cyber Protection Team operations is expected to be completed in early 2019. The buildings, with a total baseline capacity to support more than 1,200 cyber Soldiers and civilians, are projected to be fully ready for occupation in late 2020.
This is a boon for Georgia that introduces additional highly-skilled (and high-paying) IT jobs into our economy. You can expect civilian IT workers to be hired and locate near the base in Augusta.
Georgia’s economy is diversifying into different areas. Agriculture is still a main driving force, but both the IT sector and Georgia’s film industry have been major drivers of Georgia’s economy. Georgia landing the Army Cyber Command headquarters is definitely a good thing for our state.
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nsmith
Father. IT Geek. Former 14th District GOP Chairman (2015-2017). Former Walker GOP Chairman (2009-2013). Resident of Chamblee. American. Georgian. Conservative.
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How big is this building? The Army spent more than this in 1980’s dollars to build a ~400,000 sq. ft. data center at Fort Mac which Tyler Perry just got for fractional cents on the dollar. And so it goes….
I don’t know the size of the building at Fort Gordon, but Fort McPherson was closed due to the 2005 BRAC. Also, Fort Gordon is the home to a training facility for cybersecurity (the Cyber Center of Excellence), so it was probably a natural fit.
Reason you might not be able to reuse or recycle a military or government security building.
*Anything built before 1995 will not meet the major requirements for a blasted impact structure, and most can not be retrofitted.
*Most structures built before 1975 require a complete retrograde of electrical wiring and transformer systems to carry the electrical loads on modern data base warehousing.
* They also have to have additional HVAC which can not be added to the structure because the original steel loads were not designed to carry the added weight on the roof or floor system.
* It is almost impossible to retro fit a building to have an acoustical and cyber shield shell.
* A server warehouse will require a different set of sprinkler systems then a standard building. It’s difficult to add secondary sprinkler lines into buildings.
*It need fire wall separations and containment vaults. You can’t retro fit that type of fire wall and structure. Its designed into the building itself.
That’s just building related info…
Yeah I realize it was part of the BRAC, hence Tyler Perry getting it for a song, but my point is more regarding the priorities on these things being more politically motivated than fiscally responsible. The FORSCOM building was built in relative secrecy and an unknown budget though I’m sure it was in the hundreds of millions. Its nominal replacement at Fort Bragg was nearly $700 million. It was even younger at the time of its death sentence than the Georgia Dome was with its own.
I don’t remember all of the specs but the FORSCOM building at Fort Mac was built to house late eighties mainframes which had much more stringent HVAC requirements than modern servers. It started with a very deep hole in the ground and there is an 18 ft. thick reinforced slab between the offices on top and the subterranean levels. It was also ringed with tons of copper to theoretically offset EMP emissions. Now it might be used to house movie props providing Mr. Perry would want to pay the light bills. Even if this is all just chump change in the military budget I am in full agreement with Ms. Saporta that the Mayor’s sweetheart deal to Mr. Perry was a wasted opportunity.