Securing Major Investments for WSMR
Dear Friend,
Through my role on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am focused on strengthening New Mexico's military installations and preparing them for missions of the future. One of the key advances I recently secured was major funding to help replace aging infrastructure at White Sands Missile Range.
After urging Army leadership to replace a 56-year-old communications center facility that recently caught fire, I successfully moved up the timeline for constructing a new $72 million state-of-the-art Information Systems Facility at White Sands Missile Range--the first testing construction project at WSMR in 18 years. I hope you can take a moment to read the article below from last week's Las Cruces Sun-News about what this new facility will mean for WSMR. In the era of big data and technology, a modern information facility is critical for transmitting the vast amounts of data generated during military testing.
This new information center I've fought for alongside the men and women at White Sands is a big victory for WSMR and for the future of our military. The unique terrain, zero-to-infinity airspace, and expertise at WSMR cannot be replicated anywhere else in the country. I will continue to call on Army leadership to take full advantage of the exceptional testing and training capabilities offered by WSMR.
Sincerely,
MARTIN HEINRICH
United States Senator
Sun-News Reports, Jan. 10, 2018
LAS CRUCES - White Sands Missile Range will soon have a state-of-the-art Information Systems Facility and Communications Center to handle all the networking and communications on post.
Construction for the $72 million, 56,268 square-foot, two-story facility is scheduled to begin May 2019 with an estimated completion date of February 2022. The total cost includes $40 million for the construction of the building and $32 million for the state-of-the-art equipment.
"Over the past nine years, the ISF has been my number one priority for WSMR," said Information Management director Mark Tubbs. "The WSMR Information Systems Facility will be second to none and one of a kind in its ability to provide both information services support to our Test Center commander and his test mission in supporting customers and our commanding general and his overall Network Enterprise Control customers. The WSMR ISF will truly be something special for WSMR."
The ISF will have state-of-the-art data processing, network systems, telephonic, and radio control for test mission and installation-wide communication/network services and high-efficiency equipment to meet energy requirements.
"I truly feel as if we've finally turned the corner from proposal to reality thanks to the support of G6, IM people like Ivan Winners and John Medina at one end of the spectrum and past WSMR Commanding Generals like Maj. Gen. John G. Ferrari and Lt. Gen. Gwen Bingham supporting us in their present jobs at the other end of the spectrum," Tubbs said.
White Sands Test Center facility manager April Banks said the facility, a data center, is being built to handle all the network and communications on post. She said it is a consolidation of five buildings. One hundred and twenty nine employees will relocate to the new building.
"It gives WSMR a future," Banks said. "It is going to give us the ability to do more testing. It advances our capabilities to process and transport vast amounts of electronic test data more reliably, efficiently, faster and securely."
The facility will replace the existing telephone facility built in 1962. Banks said the power requirements and the capacity for supporting new communications has reached its capability.
"It is maxed out, and there is no room for growth," she said. "It has reached its lifetime. We have outgrown the building."
The facility will be located where two existing buildings currently stand. Those buildings will be demolished to make room for the new facility. The facility, which falls under the Information Management Directorate, is funded by the Military Construction Army Program.