LIHU’E – In a building originally designed and built to be a huge furniture showroom and store, some of the highest of the high-tech warfare communications systems in the world will soon be housed. And, yes, in today’s terrorism-laced world,
LIHU’E – In a building originally designed and built to be a huge furniture showroom and store, some of the highest of the high-tech warfare communications systems in the world will soon be housed.
And, yes, in today’s terrorism-laced world, it could become a target.
The old C S Wo building along Kaumuali’i Highway at Kukui Grove Center was officially blessed and turned over to Solipsys, which plans to convert before the end of this year the 23,000-square-foot building into a “hub” for communications capable of conveying information not only for the purposes of homeland security but for battlefield advantages around the globe.
With the blessing of the Rev. Wayne Vidinha of Ke Akua Mana Church in Kapa’a, the former CS Wo building became the Solipsys Network Application Integration Facility, to house one hub of a global tactical component network, according to Warren I. Citrin, Solipsys president.
The event yesterday blessing the building marked much more than just the transition of a building and square footage, Citrin said.
It marks the continuance of high-tech taking root in Kaua’i and Hawai’i, he said. The Solipsys building will be a place where global applications for homeland security and national defense will be developed, and information on conflicts across the globe will be routed through, Citrin continued.
The building will be refurbished inside and out, and the U.S. Navy has approved the Solipsys tentative security plan for the building and grounds, he said.
Citrin already envisions what he calls “indigenous capabilities,” meaning recruiting Kaua’i natives, partnering with Kauai Community College to design courses that will help students land the high-tech jobs, and developing a lasting workforce so that people won’t have to be imported to work at the facility, he said.
The network-centric warfare system, which has already seen successful tests in the Gulf of Thailand with the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, will allow federal agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration and various military units to share information, be it for homeland security or battlefield victory in the Arctic or anywhere in the world, he said.
The event yesterday happened because of the involvement of a lot of people, said Citrin. Gary Baldwin of the Kauai Economic Development Board said state legislators pushed through legislation to fund the first phase of a technology center, and helped fund the second phase as well, paving the way for the third phase, the Solipsys building.
The best and brightest young people of Kaua’i will perpetuate this, Baldwin said.
It will be mid-December before Solipsys can begin occupying the building, which Citrin said will be a first-class facility inside and out.
There will be 20 employees in place by the time the facility opens at the end of this year, and when a decision is made to operate the center seven days a week and 24 hours a day, 60 people will be needed, he said.
Those hired locally will go to the Solipsys headquarters in Laurel, Md., for training, with the Kaua’i facility to be a hub for all combatant information. He called the Kaua’i facility “the AOL of military information.”
For security reasons, backup hubs will be needed, probably at military bases, and potentially at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, Citrin said.
High tech is good for the community, Vidinha said.
“High-tech is good for Kaua’i, and good for our shopping center, because they’re going to eat lunch right over there,” said David Pratt, Grove Farm president and representative for land owner Steve Case.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
