The US Army has put out feelers for companies that may want (and be able) to build a data center for the Department of Defense’s agency that provides geospatial intelligence support to the military.

The Army has issued a “sources sought” notice for a potentially US$10m-plus project to convert a 30,000 sq ft room in the National Geospacial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) campus in Springfield, Virginia, into a Tier 2 data center, according to official government documents.

The project will double NGA’s current critical data center capacity from what it currently has at the Fort Belvoir North campus in Springfield.

The government uses sources-sought notices to conduct preliminary research of appropriate vendors or contractors for a project before issuing a solicitation for proposals. The Army has not yet issued a formal solicitation notice.

Requirements for the future NGA data center include 99.741% availability, N+1 electrical infrastructure design and power density of 150 watts per square foot. Each piece of IT equipment will be required to receive power from two different sources.

The electrical work will include installation of power distribution units, two large uninterruptible power supply (UPS) battery arrays, in addition to rotary UPS systems. It will require new switchgear, new unit substations, bus ducts and backup generators.

The data center will have segregated hot and cold aisles.

The mechanical system will include more than 50 computer room air conditioning units and a new cooling tower and chiller in the building’s central utility plant. The system will be complete with chilled-water distribution piping, a pre-action sprinkler system, chilled-water pumps, ductwork, fans and a hydrogen-detection system for the UPS battery room.