Construction of the Defense Media Activity’s (DMA) new headquarters facility is complete at Fort Meade. At present, several teams of DMA employees and contractors are working to finish installing and configuring the information technology backbone for the building, which will enable the rest of the workforce to start moving into the building.
The DMA is the Department of Defense’s (DoD) direct line of communication for news and information to U.S. forces worldwide. The activity presents news, information and entertainment on a variety of media platforms, including radio, television, Internet, print media and emerging media technologies. DMA informs millions of active, guard and reserve service members, civilian employees, contractors, military retirees and their families in the U.S. and abroad.
The agency was created to modernize and streamline media operations by consolidating military service and DoD media components into a single, joint, integrated, multimedia communications organization. It was established in October 2008 as a result of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC) of 2005. DMA consolidated the Soldiers Media Center, Naval Media Center, Marine Corps News, Air Force News Service and American Forces Information Service into a single field activity.
Also included under the DMA umbrella are the Stars and Stripes newspaper, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and the Defense Information School (DINFOS), a long-time tenant at Fort Meade that is located adjacent to the new facility.
DMA’s move into the new 176,000-square-foot facility is planned to take place between mid-June and the end of August. The state-of-the-art facility will allow DMA to provide a broad range of high quality multimedia products and services to inform, educate and entertain DoD audiences around the world. About 650 employees will be employed at the new structure.
The building contains television and radio studios, high tech editing suites, network control rooms, prop manufacturing and camera repair facilities, and the IT infrastructure to support instant sharing and collaboration for media products.
At the end of the relocation and growth period, DMA will have more than 1,000 military and civilian employees at Fort Meade and approximately 1,400 more at sites around the globe.
