RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, TEST AND EVALUATION
DCO’s project manager, Col. Mark Taylor, has been a champion of the pilot program. “Using the BA-08 will optimize budget- ing efforts, mitigate delays in software acquisition and reduce overall costs in procuring critical capabilities,” said Taylor. “It will also reshape our acquisition strategies to better support the timely delivery of our products and enable us to remain ahead on today’s cyber battlefield.”
SOFTWARE PROCUREMENT Tere are several steps in procuring software—from identifying a need, to prototyping a solution, to testing the environment and determining the longevity of technologies and license agreements. Historically, the RDT&E appropriation focused on hardware systems that have longer lifespans than software. Te BA-08 pilot is allowing DCO to be more responsive to the dexterous environ- ment of software procurement and development.
TESTING TECH
DCO’s capabilities cover an array of threats and associated solu- tions, with each piece of software simultaneously integrating with the next. DCO’s software tools proactively identify cyberspace threats through simulation exercises and actively monitor current network activities—a full spectrum of solutions to assess, deter, deny, defend, defeat and evolve against insider threats.
DCO performs user testing before full deployment of all its systems, and has identified the need for continuous updates, licenses and integration. Soldiers use the systems in real-life scenarios and give feedback to test engineers. Recently, Soldier feedback and testing identified a system that was no longer effec- tive in deterring cyberspace attacks. Based on operational needs, cyber defenders requested a new software tool that could be used to capture, index and correlate real-time network data.
During the September 2020 Cyber Quest exercise, cyber warriors participated in experiments to help Soldiers fight and defend against cyber attacks, prevent cyber threats and identify gaps in software technology. (Photo by Jennifer Sevier, DCO)
Decommissioning the obsolete software would have required an above-threshold reprogramming action from OMA to OPA, necessitating congressional approval. By using the BA-08, DCO was able to procure and provide user testing to cyber warfighters with a cost avoidance of over $3 million. Soldiers have been able to prototype and test new software with optimal results timely.
ACQUIRING CAPABILITY—FASTER
DCO procures and prototypes comprehensive cyber- space weapons systems for the Army. Prioritizing capabilities for cyber mission forces is critical to remaining ahead of today’s evolving cyber threats. It is incumbent upon DCO to ensure that data breaches and malicious activity do not happen on the DOD Information Network. By the end of fiscal year 2021, the DCO team found that the use of the BA-08 pilot led to faster acquisition lead times for many of its mission-critical capabilities, including cloud hosting for research, testing and software procurement.
CLOUD HOSTING Gabriel Nimbus is the Army’s big data platform. It provides analytics and visualization tools for large amounts of data collected by the DOD Information Network. Tese analytics facilitate counter-reconnaissance activities meant to discover the presence of cyber threats and vulnerabilities. Te platform is also the Army’s No. 1 defensive cyberspace operations weapon system, providing an integrated technology solution. Tese capabilities drive decisions, enhance situational understanding and promote automation, while enabling cyberspace warfighters to achieve their objectives.
In fiscal year 2021, the amount of data being aggregated and stored in the cloud exponentially increased due to escalating cyber threats. Tis unforeseen growth in data collection needed to be funded immediately. DCO tracks cloud hosting as an opera- tional expense that is usually paid with OMA funds. Prior to the enactment of the fiscal year 2021 Defense Appropriations
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