LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
Members of the 480th Intelligence Wing will break ground on a new $44.8M Distributed Common Ground Station facility and dedicate a new operation center in the wing headquarters in separate ceremonies here June 19.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the 144-thousand square foot DCGS facility represents a milestone for the wing as the process for the project began in 2001 to help meet the time critical intelligence demands of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
"The new facility will combine Distributed Ground System-1 personnel and assets from six separate facilities," said Col. Judy G. Chizek, 480th IW commander. "This will allow intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations, training, mission management and maintenance to be conducted in a single building."
Following the groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the new DCGS facility, a ribbon cutting ceremony will mark the official opening of the new 480th IW Operation Center. The Operation Center is staffed by approximately 100 military and contract personnel 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Before the consolidation of functions, the center was spread across three separate locations making coordination more challenging. The state-of-the art work center supports more than a dozen U-2, Global Hawk and Predator missions around the world each day. A time for media members to visit the center will be established based on media interest.
The 480th IW is the lead wing for Air Force Distributed Common Ground System operations providing global distributed and reachback intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The wing presents multi-discipline ISR analysis forces to enable dominant air and space power by Combat and Mobility Air Forces. It is the Center of Excellence for geospatial intelligence, target analysis, and precision engagement intelligence.