JOINT BASE CHARLESTON –
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic has approximately 3,500 federal civil service employees, 120 military personnel and 9,000 industry partners located at the center's headquarters here in Charleston and at other locations in the Tidewater area of Virginia; in New Orleans, La.; and in Tampa and Pensacola, Fla. We also have overseas locations in Europe, the Middle East and Antarctica.
A recent study calculated SSC Atlantic's operations in Charleston alone had a total economic impact of $2.6 billion on the state of South Carolina. We conduct $5 billion in annual business.
And yet, some folks don't really understand exactly what we do at SSC Atlantic.
The short answer is that we, like everyone on the Joint Base Charleston team, are in the freedom business. We develop solutions that enable end-users to have a critical edge in information dominance.
The long answer is that at SSC Atlantic we are involved with C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) systems, along with information technology and space capabilities. We acquire and develop these systems and provide life cycle support for them, whether they are on ships at sea or in the 1,000 Internet cafes we've established for warfighters or installed in more than 26,000 Up-Armored Humvees, Mine-Resistant, Ambush Protected vehicles and Mine-resistant, Ambush Protected All-Terrain vehicles that transport warfighters safely in war zones.
We are a leading edge Navy engineering center that designs, builds, tests, fields and supports many of the finest frontline C4ISR systems in use today, and those being planned for the future. We have more than 1,452 customers around the globe; approximately 51 percent of them are Navy and Marine Corps commands, 37 percent are joint commands and 12 percent are federal agencies. SSC Atlantic supports Unified Combatant Commands U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Central Command, U.S European Command, U.S. Joint Forces Command, U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Transporation Command and U.S. Strategic Command. Federal agency customers include the Department of State, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration and National Science Foundation.
Part of my job is to chart the course ahead. DoD and Navy leadership have set the vision. They rely on commands such as ours to help execute that vision. Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, has called for information dominance to become a main battery of naval warfighting capabilities. He is leading the effort to add cyber power to the proven capabilities of sea and air power. The CNO seeks to remain pre-eminent in the fields of intelligence, cyber warfare, command and control, electronic warfare, and battle/knowledge management. Defense Department Secretary Robert Gates has heightened everyone's fiscal awareness with his efficiency initiative. The Secretary supports solutions designed for affordability and not desire.
Secretary Gates has called for a broadened portfolio of solutions whose designs and investments can be leveraged and rapidly fielded to a wide range of customers. Enhanced systems interoperability and force integration form the central thesis of our operations throughout Team SPAWAR. We see the national defense space as one where joint warfighting forces and their supporting organizations are interconnected in a networked, collaborative environment. This connected space enables every shooter to shoot, every decider to decide and every supporter to support - all linked together to leverage their net effects and maximize their net effects contributions to the joint warfighting mission.
Here at SSC Atlantic we are ready to answer all bells. We express our Fiscal Year 2011 to FY 2014 strategy as 'We make IT count for the warfighter and the nation.' We are proud to be a part of the Joint Base Charleston team, working together to achieve our common goals of support to the warfighter.