The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Johns Hopkins Univ. Applied Physics Laboratory Phase II awards to build and evaluate prototypes under the National Cyber Range (NCR) program. Lockheed Martin’s award is for $30.8 million and Johns Hopkins’ $24.8 million. The companies were among seven awardees a year ago to provide engineering plans for the NCR (TR2, Jan. 21, 2009). In Phase II Lockheed Martin and Johns Hopkins will develop their respective working NCR prototypes. At the completion of all phases, DARPA expects the NCR to allow for assessments of information assurance and survivability tools in a representative network environment, provide realistic testing of Internet/Global Information Grid scale research, replicate complex, large-scale, heterogeneous networks and users in current and future DoD weapon systems and operations, develop new cyber testing capabilities, and enable the use of the scientific method for rigorous cyber testing. “The NCR program is developing revolutionary capabilities for cyber experimentation including a fully automated, secure range to validate leap-ahead cyber research technologies and systems, as well as provide a vision for interactive and new computer security research directions for the community,” says Michael van Putte, DARPA’s NCR program manager.
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