Suffolk News-Herald

Lawmakers and military leaders will be on hand to help the U.S. Joint Forces Command celebrate the opening of its newest facility in north Suffolk next week.

The ribbon cutting for USJFCOM’s new Joint Futures Laboratory, touted as the cutting edge of Internet-distributed experimentation, will be held next Thursday.

Admiral Edmond Giambas-tiani Jr., NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) and commander of the USJFCOM, and Maj. Gen. John Wood, director of joint experimentation, will speak at the ceremony.

The 42,000-square-foot laboratory is filled with state-of-the-art technology that will support USJFCOM’s continued coordination of joint concept development and experimentation, said Vince Nunez, the organization’s spokesman.

&uot;The laboratory provides the world’s most dynamic venue for war games, simulations, experiments and conferences,&uot; Nunez said.

The 208 staff members working there will have 325 data servers and a 135-workstation wireless network at their disposal, he said.

The laboratory will also provide a large, flexible location for hosting multiple events simultaneously.