The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Cyber Warfare Detachment (CWD) announced a solicitation for technical/cost proposals for research support in “resilient cyber warfare capabilities” for NAVAIR Weapons Systems on FedBizOpps on Friday.
The broad agency announcement (BAA) announcement is meant to arrange appropriate R&D to fill the gaps in the cyber warfare capabilities for NAVAIR weapons systems to achieve the CWD strategy: “secure weapon systems able to survive and exploit cyber warfare.”
The NAVAIR CWD develops and assesses cyber warfare capabilities for both mission assurance and to defend NAVAIR weapon systems and support systems. The CWD’s foundation for NAVAIR weapon systems is to develop the cyber workforce, invest in infrastructure and research and development, and establish standards and best practices.
The CWD found there is a scarcity of cyber R&D and threat information for weapon systems and supporting systems that “connect” to weapon systems. It also noted that most business systems information technology cybersecurity measures are mis-applied and ill-designed for weapon systems, especially considering air vehicle size, weight, and power (SWaP) restrictions.
Because of this, the BAA is soliciting R&D to “address cyber issues for weapon systems in a system of systems warfare environment with often intermittent or indirect “connectivity” to other systems,” and not merely to add IT solutions, concepts, and underlying business environment assumptions.
The BAA assumes the cyber R&D problem space for weapons systems reaches back to the concept development, supply chain management, and software development and assurance/configuration management. It also assumes the space goes as far forward as battle damage assessment and equipment sanitization and disposal.
NAVAIR CWD is interested in research in 34 areas, including weapon system cybersecurity and threat assessment models/methodologies; non-destructive cyber inspections concepts; cyber test capabilities for weapon systems; sacrificial infrastructure and reactive cyber “armor”; threat attribution, identification, and geo-location; authentication constructs for weapon system environments; techniques for encryption and secure configuration management during weapon system development; logging, reporting, and patching methodologies for intermittently connected weapon systems; and deterrent cybersecurity methodologies to increase adversary level of effort/cost.
NAVAIR is also soliciting proposals in eight specific areas for Weapon Systems: SWaP sensitive cyber resiliency for RTOS and aviation warfare environment; access point identification, prioritization, and defense; Cyber-EW convergent capabilities; full acquisition cyber cybersecurity measures; cyber test, inspection, and incident response concepts; cyber warning system techniques; cyber fault, risk, and threat assessment methodologies; and Resilient Network concepts.
There are two phases to submitting proposals. The first phase consists of abstracts which may be submitted up to the initial closing date, May 14, 2016. The second phase is by invitation only and consists of the full proposal, including technical specifics and a cost/funding proposal.
The BAA is listed as solicitation number N68335-15-R-0179.