Lockheed Martin [LMT] has received a contract extension to continue supporting the Army’s National Cyber Range (NCR) because training demands nearly depleted the current contract ceiling.

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The Army’s Program Executive Office Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO-STRI) in Orlando received authorization of the Justification & Approval for the contract extension on Feb. 8.

“The contract will maintain sufficient continuity of effort in response to ongoing and increasing demand for cyber developmental T&E and training efforts as well as cyber table top exercises across DoD,” PEO-STRI officials wrote in their authorization form.  

Lockheed Martin received the first NCR in 2012 contract to build and develop the NCR, which is now used to provide cyber network training for Army project managers and DoD Cyber Mission Force teams. It houses network simulators to be utilized for capability experimentation, architectural evaluations, security control assessments and mission planning.

“The NCR complements federal cyber capabilities by providing rapid and automated configurability and scalability for users across the DoD. It provides a 10-20x reduction in the time and cost to evaluate new cyber tools while improving confidence in the real-world performance of these tools, a vital feature considering the extremely dynamic and evolving real-world cyber threat,” PEO-STRI officials wrote.

DoD officials bypassed the open competition period and raised Lockheed Martin’s contract ceiling to meet growing demands for operational tempo (OPTEMPO) components to use the NCR for cyber table top exercises.

“Due to increasing demand in cyber test and training events, and cyber table top exercises, the remaining contract ceiling is rapidly decreasing,” officials wrote.

Lockheed Martin will continue to provide cyber security support, logistical analysis, future NCR research and engineering strategy proposals, and integration of new capabilities.

Officials cited an unnecessary delay in meeting OPTEMPO requirements and wasteful spending if another vendor were to be brought onto the contract.

“The current NCR is located inside of a [Lockheed Martin]-owned compound/building, which makes it virtually impossible for any other offeror to operate the current NCR,” officials wrote.

Work would be delayed on a new contract for at least 24 months to complete the accreditation process for a new vendor and reconstruct proprietary NCR components, according to officials.

PEO-STRI officials also pointed to lapses in cyber security responsibilities if the facility could not be used for testing and Cyber Mission Force planning while another vendor was brought on under a new contract.

“It would adversely impact DoD’s continued ability to develop and deploy weapons systems capable of successfully accomplishing their missions in a cyber contested environment,” officials wrote. “The NCR role to evaluate cyber vulnerabilities would also be absent from the DoD systems development process, thereby exposing DoD to significantly increased cyber security risks.”

PEO-STRI officials also said that when a new competition is held for the NCR, there will be a focus on open architecture and distributed locations so that it isn’t in a single facility.

“The next generation NCR will include additional sites and is planned to be used as a service to test and evaluate acquisition programs and to train CMF,” officials wrote. 

Funds to cover Lockheed Martin’s contract extension will come from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, Test Resource Management Center’s fiscal year 2017 research, development, testing & evaluation (RDT&E) budget to cover the current year three option. Funds from the fiscal year 2018 and 2019 budgets will cover the newly optioned years.

The value of the contract extension was redacted in the authorization document.