ManTech International [MANT] on Thursday officially opened a new facility in Florida to develop advanced cyber capabilities for joint training across the military, including work for the Army’s program to develop a Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE).
The new Cyber Innovation Center is located at Naval Support Activity Orlando and will be used to build tools and work on new operational capabilities required for virtualized cyber training environments.
“In addition to developing the finest hands-on training in cyber, ManTech’s Cyber Innovation Center will explore advances in infrastructure, installation of training capabilities, planning and operations,” Jim Crawford, ManTech spokesperson, told Defense Daily.
Crawford said the new facility was initially designed to support the work the company is already doing for the Army’s PCTE program to construct virtualized environments to train the Department of Defense’s Cyber Mission Forces on network defense operations.
“Our work at the Cyber Innovation Center in Orlando will continue and build on these programs, whose focus in research and development on cyber training, including research of offensive cyber that improves understanding of attacks and gives trainees tactical experience in responding to defeat these attacks,” Crawford said.
ManTech announced in April the Army had selected the company to continue supporting PCTE prototype development, with a specific focus on cyber training event control capabilities (Defense Daily, April 3).
The new facility will eventually be used to develop advanced cyber training capabilities for programs across the services, according to Crawford.
“ManTech is bringing digital to the mission to equip next generation cyber warriors with the full range of cyber warfare capabilities essential to victory in today’s fifth domain battle space,” Andrew Twomey, senior vice president for ManTech’s Mission Solutions & Services Senior Vice President, said in a statement. “Cyber Innovation Center will develop the advanced training cyber warriors need to protect vital military assets.”