New Boeing Intelligence Collaboration Center

Last month Boeing announced a new intelligence collaboration and data analysis center designed to enhance the creation and testing of new concepts to counter emerging threats to US security.

Today, thanks to friends in the national security technology space and at Boeing, I got to see the new center first-hand.

The center has a great ambiance, with workstations that are easily configurable to suit rapid set-up of demos and concept evaluations. There is plenty of hardware and room for expansion. And plenty of software and an ability to rapidly evaluate new software. More important than all of that: the entire place is filled with people with a mission-focus. In fact, the thing that impressed me the most was the mission focused approach of Dewey Houck. Dewey was a driving force behind establishing this center and he continues to give it his personal touch.

Although the center has only been open a month I get the sense the collaborations under way now are already generating results and over time those results will only grow.

I was attending the center with some national security technology professionals. They are the types of folks who shy away from publicity so I better not mention them by name, but my sense is they found the environment conducive to discussions on hard problems and tough challenges.

More on the center is provided in the press release below:

Boeing Opens New Intelligence Collaboration Center to Counter Global Threats

http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1393&printable

ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 30, 2010 – Boeing [NYSE: BA] announced today that it has opened an intelligence collaboration and data analysis center in Northern Virginia to enable the creation and testing of new concepts to counter increasingly sophisticated, global threats to U.S. security.

The innovation center will allow Boeing’s Intelligence Community customers, industry partners, and the scientific and academic communities to brainstorm, test, and field technologies designed to help prevent terrorist attacks like a passenger’s attempt to detonate explosives on a U.S. airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.

“The concepts developed in this center will allow our customers and partners to apply critical technology to their missions,” said Roger Krone, president of Boeing Network & Space Systems. “The investments Boeing is making in the center will provide a low-cost conduit for pushing technical solutions into the field with reduced risk and better results.”

Boeing’s initial $1.5 million investment in the center will support a focus on sharing and transferring information among disparate organizations, while protecting the integrity of the original data.

Among the technologies to be demonstrated in the new center are Boeing’s Cross Domain Solutions. These incorporate various hardware and software products, such as the Visual Security Operations Console, DataMaster management software and eXMeritus HardwareWall.

“Boeing has been working for several years with the Intelligence Community to deploy proven, high-end computer systems to address data sharing,” said Dewey Houck, director of the Mission Systems subdivision of Boeing Intelligence & Security Systems. “This new center provides a venue for group brainstorming and ‘ideation’ – which means using ideas generated in a collaborative environment to develop solutions that can be quickly implemented to address immediate threats.”

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world’s largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world’s largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $34 billion business with 68,000 employees worldwide.