Fortitude Hall, the headquarters for U.S. Army Cyber Command at Fort Gordon, Ga., draws its name from World War II’s OPERATION FORTITUDE, a crucial element of Allied plans to mislead Hitler about the Allies’ intentions for the invasion of Western Europe. Integrating intelligence, counterintelligence, special operations with political, economic, diplomatic and other information elements, the operation’s goal was to influence the Germans to make faulty strategic decisions and tie their forces down away from the planned Allied invasion of Normandy.
Fortitude Hall facts:
-- Fortitude Hall brings key ARCYBER elements together under the same roof for the first time since the organization’s founding in 2010. Prior to its construction, much of the command was spread over three military installations in three states – Fort Belvoir, Virginia; Fort Meade, Md.; and Fort Gordon, Ga. – and occupied 12 different facilities.
-- Construction kicked off with groundbreaking ceremonies led by Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning and ARCYBER commander Lt. Gen. (now Gen.) Paul Nakasone on November 29, 2016.
-- The facility was officially dedicated in a ceremony hosted by Under Secretary of the Army James E. McPherson, Gen. Nakasone and ARCYBER commander Lt. Gen. Stephen G. Fogarty on September 3, 2020.
-- The complex serves as a cornerstone of plans to draw together the Army’s cyber operations, capability development, training and education in one location.
-- Despite significant hurdles during construction and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the high-tech, highly secure building was delivered to ARCYBER on schedule in summer 2020, fully capable of functioning as headquarters and command and control center for ARCYBER’s staff and subordinate units.
-- Construction of the 336,000-square-foot complex spanned two Military Construction project appropriations in Fiscal Years 2016 and 2017, with a total cost at completion of $366 million for construction and infrastructure fit-out.
-- At the height of construction the prime contractor, BL Herbert International, had more than 270 workers on site at one time, and a total of more had over 700 workers contributed to the project. But in four years of construction there were no lost days due to injury.
-- Fortitude Hall conforms to U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) principles, certifying it as a resource-efficient, cost-effective high- performing and healthy facility.
-- The building is designed to be a highly collaborative environment for high-tech professionals, with state-of-the-art audio and video capable workstations, 46 video teleconference-capable conference rooms, 32 video teleconference “caves”, and dozens of small group meeting spaces interspersed throughout open-concept work centers.
-- The facility contains more than 300 servers and about 3,100 miles of passive wiring (about 900 miles longer than the Appalachian Trail).
-- Fortitude Hall is expected to bring more than 1,200 Soldiers, civilian professionals and industry partners, and more than 3,000 family members to the Central Savannah River Area community.
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Last Updated: September 2, 2020