DARPA keeps cyber range project on course

Lockheed Martin Corp. will continue to work with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to help develop a governmentwide cybersecurity initiative under a $30.8 million contract.

The award covers Phase II of DARPA’s National Cyber Range program, It follows the completion of a $5.4 million contract for the initial development phase, which was awarded in 2009.

The National Cyber Range is part of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a major governmentwide effort to increase the nation’s defenses against electronic attack, according to a Lockheed statement today.

In Phase I, DARPA and its industry team created initial conceptual designs, concepts of operation, and detailed engineering and system demonstration plans, the statement said.

In Phase II, DARPA, Lockheed Martin and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory will work to build and evaluate prototype ranges and their corresponding technology.

“The NCR will support large-scale cyber testing, providing fully automated range management and test management suites to assess and validate leap-ahead cyber research technologies and systems, and to help DARPA identify new research directions,” the company said.

Ultimately, the NCR will provide a revolutionary, safe, fully automated and instrumented environment for U.S. cybersecurity research organizations to evaluate leap-ahead research, accelerate technology transition, and enable a place for experimentation of iterative and new research directions, according to a DARPA statement on the agency's Web site.

Lockheed Martin’s Simulation, Training and Support unit will lead a team of experienced cyber technologists from across the corporation, including talent from its Advanced Technology Laboratories and Information Systems & Global Services business units.

Lockheed Martin Corp., of Bethesda, Md., ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology’s 2009 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.