To help it better serve some of its classified customers in the area of cyber security, General Dynamics [GD] yesterday opened its Cyber and Intelligence Solution Center near Fort Meade, Md., home to the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command.

The new 28,000 square foot facility, which will seat up to 100 GD employees, also houses the EDGE Innovation Center, which is a GD-sponsored consortium consisting of hundreds of companies that help their customers collaborate on requirements and needs. The newest EDGE facility is the 11th in the consortium’s portfolio.

The new high-security Cyber Center will help GD more closely collaborate with its government partners and features a variety of technology tools in the area of situational awareness to better understand attacks, gaps and vulnerabilities, cyber training solutions to test cyber tools, and platform integrity, Bill Ross, vice president of Federal Systems and Cyber Solutions for GD’s C4 Systems business, told Defense Daily yesterday.

The facility will enable GD to work directly with its defense and intelligence government customers and other trusted partners and for the EDGE consortium separately to also work with the defense and intelligence community.

The new GD facility highlights the growing importance of cyber security to the defense industry and for the industry to find ways to be more agile and collaborative with its government customers and partners. Last fall, Boeing [BA] also opened a new cyber facility near Fort Meade to improve its ability to work with its classified customers (Defense Daily, Oct. 26, 2011).