Science Applications International will celebrate the opening of the Advanced Radar Research and Development and Production Center with a ribbon cutting ceremony at its new facility, 100 Rialto Place in Melbourne, Fla. The celebration will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, March 21st 2006. Congressman Dave Weldon (R-FL) will be the event’s guest of honor and featured speaker.
The Radar Center was created to help satisfy the steadily increasing demand for advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) products, which can provide critical, time-sensitive information on difficult problems faced by tactical commanders and senior decision-makers in the military community.
“SAR systems can provide accurate geospatial products during the day or night and in any weather,” said John Thomas, SAIC senior vice president and general manager of the Operational Intelligence Solutions Business Unit. “The products are especially useful in supporting combat operations or other time- sensitive activities.”
Geospatial data allows decision-makers to visualize events from a geographic perspective and can facilitate assessments made before, during and after a military operation. The Radar Center has also performed significant projects for civilian authorities as well, particularly in the area of emergency management.
“We want to facilitate critical decision-making for Brevard County officials before, during and after a disaster affects our community,” said Dave Bookman, the Radar Center’s senior systems engineer. “Our plan is to use all available local, state and national datasets, and to supplement optical satellite data with SAR to provide critical information earlier than it is currently available.”
The Radar Center will have the ability to create storm tracking and damage prediction maps, hazard and asset location maps and optical satellite remote sensing maps. The Center will also provide the basic census demographics of affected areas and street address geo-coordinates that will help civil authorities to rapidly direct resources to the places they are needed most.
SAIC is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, with more than 43,000 employees in over 150 cities worldwide. For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2005, the company reported annual revenues of $7.2 billion. SAIC engineers and scientists solve complex technical problems in national security, homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care, and logistics. SAIC: FROM SCIENCE TO SOLUTIONS(TM)
