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Facilities

Collaborative Analysis Centers

APL’s Collaborative Analysis Centers (CACs) are dynamic, state-of-the-art facilities for analysis, modeling, simulation, and gaming. CACs provide a location for an organization to examine complex problems by bringing together subject-matter experts with different backgrounds, perspectives, and agendas to exchange qualitative and technical information in an informal, but structured, manner. The Laboratory has two CACs: CAC Laurel, located on our main campus in Laurel, Maryland, and CAC Crystal City, located in our Crystal City, Virginia, field office.

CACs are ideal locations to identify future needs and capability requirements; examine the utility of various system concepts; develop and examine operational concepts; evaluate science and technology solutions; and identify and prioritize issues for decision makers. Some examples of past users and projects are:

  • Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, Ballistic Missile Exercise
  • Office of the Secretary of Defense, Economic Seminar/War Game
  • Tenth Fleet, Cyber Technical Exchanges
  • APL, Future Navy Capabilities Exercise
Collaborative Analysis Center in Laurel, MD

CAC Laurel

CAC Laurel features:

  • Fifty-three electronic seminar support workstations running groupware
  • A 50-seat observer gallery
  • A separate planning room area with 20 seats, 10 additional electronic seminar support workstations, and 4 plasma displays
  • Four large projection screens
  • Four plasma displays for defense exercises
  • 3-D scenario modeling and visualization
  • Classified and unclassified teleconferencing and video teleconferencing
  • Extensive information/database access and network capability
  • Multilevel security
Collaborative Analysis Center in Crystal City

CAC Crystal City

CAC Crystal City features:

  • Extensive information/database access and network capability
  • Twenty-three electronic seminar support workstations running groupware
  • Two large presentation displays and a separate secondary flat-panel auxiliary display
  • A 15-seat observer gallery
  • Classified video teleconferencing functionality
  • Multiple breakout rooms adjacent to the CAC, with observation display capabilities for the conferences taking place in the CAC
  • Unclassified video teleconferencing capabilities in the main breakout room

Additional Collaborative Analysis Facilities

NSAD Management Center

NSAD Management Center

Two additional facilities on APL’s main campus in Laurel, Maryland—the National Security Analysis Management Center and the centrally managed general-purpose conference room in APL’s Montpelier 6 building—are configured to support collaborative analysis. Our electronic seminar support systems can be configured and deployed to facilitate collaborative events in individual conference facilities, or configured to accommodate distributed events across multiple locations internal to APL or across the Internet. The groupware infrastructure and client systems are transportable and can be packed up and shipped to sponsor locations to be set up on site.