The Air Force Research Laboratory yesterday issued a long-term Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) seeking research proposals in six focus areas related to cyber defense.
Despite the fact that the Air Force leadership has decided not to stand up a separate cyber command, “the requests coming out of the Air Force Research Laboratory are a gold mine in terms of identifying the specific types of security solutions the Air Force needs,” Deniece Peterson, an analyst with the market research firm INPUT, said in a statement this week.
The BAA [BAA-08-08-RIKA], titled Integrated Cyber Defense & Support Technologies, seeks white papers in the areas of Strategic Cyber Defense, Global Cyber Situational Understanding, Incorruptible Date Codes and Executables, Cybercraft, Assured Load Balancing Enterprise, and Self Regenerating Incorruptible Enterprise, according to a FedBizOpps announcement posted yesterday.
Under the strategic defense area, the Air Force’s objective is to avoid threats altogether and deter attacks. Under the situational understanding area, the Air Force wants to improve situational awareness for cyber operators by applying various technologies and visualization techniques. Cybercraft refers to the need to address defense issues including the “disparity between time-to-attack and time-to-defend, trust of current cyber defenses, and situational awareness in cyberspace,” the service says.
The Air Force has $49.9 million available under the BAA, with basically $12.5 million set aside for the next four years beginning in FY ’09. Awards typically won’t last longer than three years and will range in value from $100,000 to $1 million annually. The BAA will remain open until Sept. 30, 2012, with the initial proposals due by Dec. 1, 2008. [Contact: Lynn White, contracting officer, 315-330-4996, [email protected]]