The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded seven contracts for engineering plans to be completed within the next eight months for a National Cyber Range (NCR) that would be used to test and validate advanced cyber research technologies. The ultimate goal is to create a test bed to assess a network’s ability to defend itself against a wide variety of cyber attacks, a DARPA spokeswoman tells TR2. The awardees and their amounts are: SPARTA, Inc., $8.6 million; Johns Hopkins Univ. Applied Physics Laboratory, $7.3 million; Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Simulation, Training and Support business, $5.4 million; BAE Systems, Information and Electronic Systems Integration, $3.3 million; Science Applications International Corp. [SAI], $2.8 million; General Dynamics [GD], Advanced Information Systems, $1.9 million; and Northrop Grumman [NOC], Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems, $344,097. “The National Cyber Range is the perfect job for DARPA because we understand the importance of establishing the fundamentals of science and technology,” says Dr. Michael VanPutte, DARPA program manager. “Through careful observation, measurement and analysis, the National Cyber Range will develop realistic, quantifiable assessments of our nation’s cyber research and development technologies.” He also says the Cyber Range will provide vision for new computer security research directions. Under Phase I the government hopes to be able to determine that the contractor’s approach is feasible and that the contractor has a credible and affordable approach to reduce system risk within the planned schedule. Following Phase I, DARPA could initiate a second phase with a critical design review and a third phase to develop the full-scale NCR and begin conducting tests. DARPA received 12 bids for the program.
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