Cyber Command making local impact

Local colleges adapt programs to better serve Army needs.

The Army is still several years away from moving its Cyber Command headquarters to Fort Gordon, but its impact has been felt throughout Augusta in 2016.

Local institutions such as Augusta University and Aiken Technical College have expanded their curriculums since the Pentagon announced in 2013 plans to move the U.S. Army Cyber Command from Fort Meade, Md., to Fort Gordon. In a related area, Augusta University signed an articulation agreement with NSA’s National Cryptologic School to give a pilot class of 25 military personnel at Augusta’s NSA intelligence-gathering facility the chance to earn bachelor’s degrees in one of four career tracks, such as political science and international relations.

University officials said the agreement strengthens the bond between the institution and the city’s burgeoning cyberdefense industry. But the growing cyber presence has shown itself beyond local educational institutions.

The investment group renovating Augusta’s historic Sibley Mill into a high-tech mixed-use development signed a deal with a Maryland-based institute to train future cybersecurity professionals there as early as next year.

Cape Augusta LLC, the company redeveloping the 136-year-old textile mill into an urban tech hub called Augusta Cyberworks, formed a joint venture with UMBC Training Centers LLC to educate up to 200 cyber professionals a year. Certificate program courses could begin in early 2017, when Sibley’s phase one renovations are complete, Cape Augusta CEO James Ainslie said.

The phase one project includes building out office space in a 32,500-square-foot structure outside the fourstory main mill facility for local information technology firm EDTS, whose current offices are on Broad Street.

Several defense contractors already have established offices in the area, including MacAulay-Brown Inc., Saber Systems Inc., IntelliGenesis LLC and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., joining longtime contractors such as Raytheon and the city’s single-largest cyber contractor, Unisys Corp., whose downtown offices are gearing up to employ at least 750 workers, about 100 of whom support Army email and IT functions worldwide.

The massive expansion of Fort Gordon’s military intelligence and cyberwarfare missions during the next few years will require military contractors and subcontractors to have a steady pipeline of information security specialists from which to draw in the local labor pool.

The Cyber Command complex will be constructed in two phases. The $85.1 million, 179,000-square-foot first phase is slated for completion in May 2018.