Once you enter the lobby you face wall of big screens, displaying current critical operations. Jeff Clarkson, research engineer at SPAWAR, wants you to see all relevant information, as you move through the lobby. Then, you are greeted by the watch officer, who has a general overview of what"s going on. He is in charge of collecting the information coming in. Past him, you reach a black round table, like Grand Moff Tarkin"s meeting room in Star Wars. Here the senior staff would meet and decide on various issues. The 135-inch screen in the back of room should help form strategies and find ways to implement these. Overall it looks like a command center on the USS Enterprise.
SPAWAR is a Navy laboratory that sees its task in "creating an unfair advantage for our war fighters;" according to Jim Fallin, the facility"s director of communications, it designs "systems, infrastructure, sensors and the means needed to create a fully netted combat force that operates and interlaces all the domains of warfare, from seabed to space."
In the video tour you can see technology available already today. On the screens we see a program which is undoubtedly Google Earth. While Mr. Clarkson, takes the CNET reporter around the command center, we see the watch officer zooming in and out of Manhattan island. As noted in the article, the screens will in the near future be replaced by touch-screen solutions.
One thing becomes clear watching the video; the US Navy spares no expense in its effort to protect their homeland from anyone they label a foe and see as a threat. Even today naval aircraft carriers are a wonder of technological achievement.