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MacDill gets $116-million for new intelligence center

By PAUL DE LA GARZA
Published April 21, 2006

TAMPA - The Defense Department plans to build a $116-million intelligence center at MacDill Air Force Base to meet the growing demand for information in the global war on terror.

Construction on the Joint Intelligence Center for Central Command, which runs military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, is scheduled to begin in July.

"The project is fulfilling a critical need to assist in the growth and functionality of USCENTCOM Intelligence Operations," CentCom spokesman Lt. Col. Trey Cate said in a statement Friday.

The four-story structure will be built near the commissary and cover 269,000 square feet. It will accommodate 1,300 people, the same number of staff members who work intelligence at CentCom now. The new facility is set to be completed in May 2008.

CentCom is responsible for U.S. security interests in 25 nations from the Horn of Africa through the Arabian Gulf region and into Central Asia.

The current intelligence center processes intelligence from various sources in those regions, including unmanned aerial drones and satellites.

Sensitive compartmental information facilities have been compared with secret vaults.

At CentCom, the current Joint Intelligence Center is equipped with giant TV screens that can feed pictures to analysts from the war zone.

It also has secure communications that can link the command to any part of the world.

Clark Construction Group of Maryland was awarded the contract for the new facility on Monday. The government solicited 425 bids and four companies responded, the Defense Department said.

By MacDill standards, the $116-million contract is impressive. By comparison, a much-touted war-fighting center at MacDill-based Special Operations Command cost an estimated $25-million.

In a statement Friday, Clark Construction executive John Omran said the company looked forward to working with MacDill and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is handling the contract.

"The Clark Construction team is very proud to have this opportunity to build a project that will support the men and women in the military who give so much to this great country," Omran said.

Clark Construction is no stranger to MacDill.

The company is building the War Fighter Center of Excellence at SOCom, which oversees the nation's elite commandos. At the direction of President Bush, SOCom is coordinating the military's war on terror.

At the war-fighting center, SOCom will consolidate intelligence, operations and planning functions. SOCom spokesman Col. Sam Taylor said a ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled May 1.

Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, CentCom and SOCom have been on the front lines of the war on terror.

In addition to these projects, the Pentagon is establishing a secret facility in St. Petersburg - similar to the planned intelligence center at CentCom - to help SOCom better process intelligence.

Last fall, Blackbird Technologies of Virginia, known for employing former CIA officers, was awarded a $27-million contract to operate a Joint Intelligence Center on behalf of SOCom.

The center, to operate out of a building at 9th Street N and Gandy Boulevard in St. Petersburg, is intended to help the national intelligence director "remodel" military intelligence at SOCom.

Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, says the facility will house personnel "that will help define and redesign SOCom's processes and technologies required to ensure better communications, knowledge development and information-sharing within the command structure and its support elements."

In the past few years, as a federal panel considered which military bases to close, Young, chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, worked to beef up MacDill with a series of construction projects.

-Paul de la Garza can be reached at delagarza@sptimes.com or 813-226-3432.

[Last modified April 21, 2006, 19:41:02]