Boeing

A unique side-by-side collocation of satellite industry contractors and their U.S. government customers is made possible by the newest facility on the El Segundo campus of Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS), a unit of The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA). This collocation is credited with improved communication and cohesion within teams developing military and government satellite programs that are vital to national defense.

The facility is a newly renovated eight-story office building at 2300 E. Imperial Highway, immediately adjacent to BSS headquarters. About 300 workers in the BSS Department of Defense/Civil Programs unit currently occupy four floors of the building. The building has been retrofitted with fiber-optics, and a conference and event center equipped with state-of-the-art audiovisual, videoconferencing and presentation equipment is among the new amenities at the site.

The facility houses several key BSS military satellite communications programs, most notably the Ultra High Frequency Follow-On (UHF F/O) program, for which BSS is under contract for 11 satellites; Milstar; Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF); and the company's newest program, Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS), a multi-satellite Department of Defense (DoD) communications system that the company won in January.

Randy Brinkley, president of Boeing Satellite Systems, said the company's $7.6 million investment in customizing this leased facility reflects the steady growth in BSS' DoD/Civil Programs unit and BSS' commitment to supporting these critical programs. That unit has expanded with the recently announced awards for WGS for the U.S. Air Force and an eleventh UHF Follow-On spacecraft to be built for the U.S. Navy, in addition to the BSS share of AEHF.

"We made a concerted effort to anticipate the needs of our DoD and government customers in the plans for this facility," Brinkley also said. "Now, our customers from the Los Angeles Air Force Base and other local installations can attend program design reviews and other gatherings in a comfortable, up-to-date BSS facility that was designed specifically for the needs of their programs.

"The WGS program has been the recipient of the John J. Welch award for excellence in acquisition management," Brinkley added. "We believe that a key element to the success of WGS thus far is attributable to our collocated work team. In short, communications are better and there is a cohesion in this team that only collocation can provide."

Lt. Col. Brian Magazu, Program Manager, Wideband Gapfiller Satellites stated: "The combined BSS and Government WGS Program team is 'joined at the hip' in this new building. Together, we're focused on providing our nation's soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines with high-capacity military satellite communications in 2004. WGS is one team collocated in one facility and focused on success."

Last year the owner of the 26-year-old building undertook a full exterior renovation and demolished most of the interior. Starting with that gutted shell, BSS built offices for more than 300 people as well as data banks and fully equipped conference and presentation rooms. The project took about 12 months.

The largest of these rooms is the first floor conference center, which also contains the largest and most capable videoconference center on the BSS campus. Designed to accommodate up to 120 people, the room features specialized lighting, audio systems and a dual computer projection system. The facility's interactive two-way videoconference system uses high-speed data circuits, and its adjacent, professional-grade television "control room" will be used when broadcasting events via the BSS campus-wide computer and TV system.

The building's first floor lobby features a flexible product display area as well as guarded, secure access to the BSS office suites.