The Army has awarded Research Innovations Inc. a $21 million prototype deal to deliver a software solution designed to provide tactical units with improved cyber threat detection and reporting capabilities.
The 20-month prototype Other Transaction Authority (OTA) award covers the three-phase Cyber Situational Understanding (Cyber SU) program, with plans to hold initial soldier evaluations with a brigade combat team in fiscal year 2021.
“With Cyber SU, tactical units are afforded the ability to view cyberspace events, associated impacts and related status quickly by correlating in time, physical and logical space; across likely threat vectors and actions; and phases of operation and mission types,” Jerry Harper, the Army’s product lead for Mission Command Cyber, said in a statement. “These tools will enable tactical commanders to make faster and more informed action decisions.”
Cyber SU will be built on the service’s new Command Post Computing Environment and is intended to “provide a common cyber operational picture in order to visualize, collaborate and report cyber threats to operational commanders.”
The program’s three phases will cover individual cyber visualization, battlespace visualization and battlespace situational awareness, according to the Army.
“As each phase builds, the prototype software will provide a tactical commander and staff the capability to visualize and understand the physical, logical and cyber-persona layers of cyberspace, and understand the adverse effects and impact,” Army officials wrote in a statement.