The Army’s Office for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology is seeking information on physical hardware and networking models to evaluate the technical feasibility of a Deployable Defensive Cyberspace Operations Infrastructure (DDI), which supports the Cyber Protection Teams (CPT) that provide defense to respond to suspected or anticipated cyber threats.
The office has issued a Sources Sought Notice for the models with plans for challenge events leading to one or more awards to deliver hardware-based pilot or prototype DDI capability to allow operational evaluation of the technical feasibility of the capability across all mission areas of the CPT.
The Army plans to issue a requirement through the Consortium for Command, Control, Communications and Computer Technologies (C5), which uses the Defense Department’s Other Transaction Authority for public-private collaboration to meet the United States’ military’s needs in the C4ISR area. That requirement was expected to be issued as early as June 22.
In May, Army officials said at a cyber security conference to discuss their cyber security plans that the service is working to create an agile, rapid acquisition process that responds quickly to the needs of its cyber forces and cyberspace. Part of those plans is to conduct a challenge framework for limited quantity pilot and production solutions using Other Transaction Authority through a consortium.
The announcement in the June 19 FedBizOpps about the impending release of the DDI requirement for the Cyber Protection Teams is the first challenge, which is being done through the C5 consortium.
Any contracts that arise from this first challenge are expected to be small, worth around $2 million, Jim Frankovic, chief operating officer of the Consortium Management Group, told sister publication Defense Daily on June 22. CMG oversees C5 and other consortiums that have contracts with federal agencies to enable OTA transactions between the public and private sector.
Frankovic said the OTA arrangement, which allows for more rapid and agile acquisitions than done through traditional contracting processes, will allow for a contract award in the first cyber challenge in less than two months versus the year or more it would take going the traditional route.
While C5 is focused on the larger C4ISR space, cyber is the initial focus, Frankovic said.
Frankovic said the Army Acquisition Office announcement in the FedBizOpps is a clarification saying that “if you want to play in the Cyber Challenge, you need to be a member of C5 because that’s where the requests and the requirements are going to be made public.” The consortium has 140 member companies and universities, he said.
In the FedBizOpps announcement, the acquisition office said that Defense Cyber Operations “within key cyber terrain is conducted by a maneuver defense force that offers commanders quick reaction, cyber defense reinforcement, and security enhancement capabilities.”
The forces are provided through the CPTs, which operate within friendly networks and have five missions: mission protection; discovery and counter infiltration; cyber threat emulation; inspection; and cyber support.