White Sands Missile Range will move forward with plans to build a state of the art Information Systems Facility and Communications Center to handle all the networking and communications on post.
The project, which was originally scheduled to begin May 2019, was halted during Congressional discussions on funding for the border wall. In June 2020 WSMR was notified that the funding was available again.
Construction for the $70.6 million 56,268 square foot two story facility is scheduled to begin June 2021 with an estimated completion date of December 2023. The total cost includes $53 million for the construction of the building and $17.6 million for the state of the art equipment, which ATEC will fund.
John Medina, Chief, Transmission Services Division with the Range Operations Directorate said WSMR is in need of a new facility because Buildings 123 and 1512 do not have sufficient power, cooling or back-up power and there is no room for expansion.
He said the new facility will house advanced capabilities to support Cross-Functional-Team priorities with secure, reliable modern IT infrastructure and services.
“WSMR will be in a better position to support the cross functional team priorities out of Army Futures Command and having a modern facility with state of the art equipment will greatly improve our missions support capabilities,” Medina said.
The ISF will be equipped with state of the art unclassified and classified data processing and high capacity storage, networks and network operation centers (NOC) for the administrative networks, Land Mobile Radio control for test mission and installation-wide communication/network services with high-efficiency equipment to meet energy requirements, and the Help Desk for administrative IT issues on WSMR.
The facility, a data center, is being built to handle all the network and communications on post, and is the gateway for voice and data connectivity to the rest of the country. It is a consolidation of buildings 1512, 123 and a portion of 1621 and 1408.
The facility will replace the existing telephone and administrative network core facility, which was built in 1962.
The new facility has been in the plans for several years. Medina said there were a handful of employees that began planning for this and coming up with initial requirements and capabilities back in 1999.
“To see it actually come to fruition 22 years later is very exciting after working for so long on documentation and submissions.”
The facility will be located at the corner of Benet Street and Aberdeen Avenue. Building 120 has been demolished and Building 123 will be demolished at a later time after the ISF becomes operational.
Prior to the facility being formally completed, WSMR personnel will be installing the new equipment, and preparing for the fiber optic and copper cable cutover, after which, the construction contractor will start the cutover from Building 123 and connect them into the new facility, making the ISF operational as part of the official construction completion.
Medina credited the New Mexico Senatorial and Congressional delegates, ATEC Headquarters and WSMR Command Staff for making sure the project moved forward.
The facility is being funded by the Military Construction Army Program.
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