[Infowarrior] - DOD Eyes Various Agencies To Take Over DARPA National Cyber Range

[Richard Forno]

Inside the Pentagon - 03/31/2011

CYBERCOM unlikely to be tapped

DOD Eyes Various Agencies To Take Over DARPA National Cyber Range

A draft Defense Department report introduces new options for DOD agencies
that might take ownership of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's
National Cyber Range, a congressional source told Inside the Pentagon.

U.S. Cyber Command was previously thought to be the primary candidate for
assuming responsibility for the range, but those plans were "wishful
thinking," the source said.

Players in the conversation now include agencies within the Pentagon's test
and evaluation community, the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) and the Department of Homeland Security. It could also enter into
government-owned, contractor-operated arrangement or a contractor-owned,
contractor-operated arrangement, the source said.

The Defense Department has not yet finalized the report, which has been
prepared by the Pentagon's procurement shop and briefed on Capitol Hill.

The Fiscal Year 2011 National Defense Authorization Act required the
Pentagon's acquisition shop to write the report to lay out a way to
transition the National Cyber Range away from being a strictly DARPA
program.

The congressional source told ITP earlier this month that DARPA was aware it
could not carry on full responsibility for the range on its own since the
agency is "supposed to be nimble and move onto the next issue and if they
get saddled with maintaining [the range] indefinitely, that would be a
terrible waste of capability."

According to the law, Congress will withhold appropriating funding for the
range until the report is delivered. FY-12 budget justification documents
released last month include a $10 million request to continue development of
the National Cyber Range.

"The draft report made it seem like [CYBERCOM] was going to be a transition
pathway," the source said. "But then when you actually talk with the folks
at Cyber Command they say 'No, that's not the case.'"

Rather, CYBERCOM would be a "beneficiary," the source said. The National
Cyber Range would be "something that [CYBERCOM] would use as a part of their
mission," the source added. "But that doesn't mean they are a transition
partner."

The White House and the Pentagon tasked DARPA with developing the National
Cyber Range in May 2008. DARPA sought research proposals for the range that
would "investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances
in science, devices or systems."

Officials from the Pentagon's acquisition directorate and DARPA made clear
that no final decisions regarding the range have been made.

"There is data that has to be generated before they can decide who
ultimately will own it," the source said. "What we talked about with AT&L is
. . . we were looking for them to sort of walk us through the process: who
are the potential owners and operators of the range? And there are a number
of potential organizations that could do it.

"If they don't have enough data to pick a winner, they have to tell us how
they are going to evaluate [agencies] to pick a winner and when we should
expect enough information to pick a winner," the source said.

Although the acquisition directorate has completed a draft of the memo, DOD
has not always been receptive to preparing the report. In a December 3, 2010
appeal to Congress, obtained by ITP last year, DOD argued that the report
would be "extremely disruptive" and could "lead to a costly expense,
modifying the contracts of the existing performers."

However, Congress wrote the law to give the Pentagon the "incentive to do
[the report] quickly," the source noted.

-- Amanda Palleschi