U.S. Naval Academy to get new five-story building dedicated to the study of cyber security
WASHINGTON, 8 April 2016. U.S. Navy leaders are solidifying their commitment to cyber security research and education with a new five-story center for cyber security studies at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
Officials of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Washington have announced a $106.7 million contract to Turner Construction Co. in Reston, Va., to design and build the cyber securities studies building on the Naval Academy campus.
The Naval Academy first offered a cyber operations major to Naval Academy midshipmen in 2012, and the first graduating class to complete the major will become commissioned naval officers later this year.
The Naval Academy has established the Center for Cyber Security Studies to enhance the education of midshipmen in all areas of cyber warfare to facilitate the sharing of expertise and perspectives in cyber warfare throughout the academy.
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The Center for Cyber Security Studies provides a streamlined means of identifying priorities, enhance inter-disciplinary research in cyber warfare, disseminate information, harmonize efforts in cyber warfare-related efforts at the Naval Academy.
The center supports curricular and professional reforms across the Naval Academy, and helps enhance the quality of education of Naval Academy graduates in cyber warfare.
Congress approved funding for the new 206,000-square-foot cyber security building at the Naval Academy in late 2014. Construction is to begin late this year and the building should be finished and ready for its first midshipmen in late 2018.
The new cyber security building at the Naval Academy is to include classrooms, teaching and research laboratories, lecture halls, offices, multi-purpose space, an observatory, loading dock, and research and testing tank in support of engineering and weapons labs, Navy officials say.
The new building also will include a special facility to enable midshipmen to handle classified information. The contract announced on 31 March has three options that could increase its value to $114.4 million.
The building will be located between the Naval Academy's Nimitz Library and Rickover Hall, according to a story in the Capital Gazette of Annapolis, Md., headlined Federal spending bill funds new cyber center at Naval Academy.
"A cyber center here at the Naval Academy allows us to better facilitate the cyber operations curriculum and provide world-class education to the midshipmen," the story quoted Naval Academy spokesman Cmdr. John Schofield.
On this contract Turner Construction will do the work in Annapolis, Md., and should be finished by September 2019. For more information contact Turner Construction online at www.turnerconstruction.com, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command at www.navfac.navy.mil, or the U.S. Naval Academy at www.usna.edu.
