Army gets closer on Cyber Battle Lab

The Army, in line with the military’s intensified focus on cyber operations, is converting its Network Battle Lab to the Cyber Battle Lab, a change that is more than in name-only.

The Network Battle Lab generally concentrates on network tests in support of mission command. The Cyber Battle Lab, expected to hit initial operating capability in October, will support every area of cyber electromagnetic activities, a fairly new term known as CEMA, which includes cyberspace operations, electronic warfare and spectrum management, according to a draft solicitation by the Mission and Installation Contracting Command at Fort Gordon, Ga.

The Army plans to award a contract, designated as a small business set-aside, to support the lab in providing experimentation support to warfighters “dynamic network experimentation integrated with cyberspace operations and electronic warfare,” the draft states. Activities will include live experimentation, modeling and simulation, regional hub node experimentation, and the Battle Lab collaborative simulation.

Among the experimentation support to be delivered under the contract are cutting-edge systems engineering, satellite support, analysis, prototyping, assessments, systems administration, network engineering, information assurance, model development, and distributed simulation network operations and security center services, according to the draft solicitation.

Ultimately, the experiments, assessments, analyses and network support activities are intended to confirm the effectiveness of proposed new technologies and techniques to identify any gaps in cyber operations and electronic warfare.

The Army, which first signaled its Cyber Battle Lab plans in October 2014 with a sources sought notice, hasn’t yet put a price on the contract, but said it plans to award a contract with a “base year” of nine months with four full-year options.