DARPA has earmarked $30.8m for Lockheed Martin as part of the National Cyber Range program, which is designed to evaluate the readiness of US cybersecurity systems.
The NCR will serve as a framework to assess US new cybersecurity technologies, often using highly scalable testing systems. Launched a year ago, it is a part of the secretive Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, launched in January 2008. It will focus on new technologies that are being prepared to help bolster cybersecurity. When complete, it will offer a means of testing these technologies to evaluate their effectiveness. The technologies that it evaluates may not be deployed for five or ten years, according to DARPA.
This is the second phase of the NCR. The first, lasting eight months, saw the creation of conceptual designs, operational concepts, and detailed engineering and system demonstration plans. Now, it will focus on prototypes. A third phase is also planned, which will see the development of the full cyber range, and the commencement of tests.
Johns Hopkins University is the other contractor for the second phase of the program. Its Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., scooped up $24.8m from DARPA to provide services supporting the NCR.
Both Lockheed Martin and Johns Hopkins University also received grant awards as part of the first phase of the project. Lockheed was awarded $5.4m, and John Hopkins received $7.3m. Other participants in the first phase were BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Science Applications International, and SPARTA.