By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.
UPDATED alongside contract details WASHINGTON: Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 deceptively little accolade for a blandly named “Unified Platform” genuinely gives contractor Northrop Grumman the atomic number 82 purpose inwards developing the side past times side generation of weapons for Cyber Command. Other companies may offering specific software in addition to hardware modules, but every bit “Systems Coordinator,” Northrop at nowadays gets to pattern the virtual chassis all those upgrades must tally on.
The goal is to laissez passer on the 6,200-strong Cyber Mission Force — created inwards a hurry in addition to equipped alongside a hodgepodge of kit developed past times different armed services in addition to tidings agencies — a common, compatible fix of tools in addition to then they tin deed inwards cyberspace every bit a coordinated armed services unit. In particular, Unified Platform volition allow the newly independent Cyber Command deportment military operations inwards cyberspacewithout depending on National Security Agency infrastructure, every bit it has done since its creation, in addition to without interfering alongside NSA’s tidings collection.
The require is urgent in addition to the footstep intense: Following simply viii months later a Request For Information inwards February in addition to 4 months later a Request For Proposals inwards June, Friday’s $54 i one m thousand accolade is the maiden off slice of a fast-moving endeavor for which the Pentagon wants to pass $217 i one m thousand over 5 years.
But a skeptical Congress knocked b.2 millionoff the Unified Platform asking inwards the 2019 appropriations bill, citing a “lack of justification on foundational efforts.” The program’s problem? It exists at the unhallowed intersection of hush-hush operations, information technology, in addition to federal contracting, in addition to then what it genuinely doesis shrouded inwards classification, buzzwords, in addition to jargon.
Yesterday, though, a veteran cyber warrior — a retired Air Force two-star turned principal assistant secretarial assistant for cyber policy — made a adept endeavor at explaining it inwards English:
“It’s a unifying platform inwards a lot of ways because it brings to deport a lot of information in addition to it helps commanders…make decisions,” Edwin Wilson told reporters. Unified Platform volition delineate together information from disparate systems into a single, standardized stance of the virtual battlefield that shows their commanders non alone the threats, but also the condition of their ain disparate forces — “the readiness in addition to the capabilities that nosotros select both on deck for offensive or for defensive operations,” he said — in addition to command-and-control mechanisms to employ those capabilities.
Navy cyber sailors
Cyber Maneuver
Unified Platform isn’t every bit sexy every bit a fighter bird or a nuclear submarine. To the untrained eye, all it volition e'er hold off similar is a bunch of people staring at screens in addition to typing. But militarily, it’s every bit essential to cyber state of war every bit planes are to state of war inwards the air or subs to state of war nether the sea. Like the air, sea, in addition to outer space — but dissimilar the province — cyberspace is a domain which humans can’t come inwards without specially designed machines. Indeed, much similar the electromagnetic spectrum used for radar in addition to radio, humans can’t fifty-fifty perceive what’s happening inwards cyberspace without specialized tools.
What makes cyber operations fifty-fifty to a greater extent than challenging, however, is that yous can’t fifty-fifty meet into a particular network, allow lonely defend or fix on it, unless the specific software you’re using is compatible alongside the specific software running that network. Offensive cyber tools inwards particular ofttimes select to live exquisitely custom-built to deport upon a particular target, every bit Stuxnet was for the Iranian nuclear program.
Russian develop tracks are farther apart than those inwards Europe. As inwards cyberspace, incompatible network standards complicate both armed services in addition to civilian operations.
The closest equivalent inwards the physical basis is how railways inwards the onetime Soviet Union are standardized on a different approximate than the residuum of Europe. Rail cars built for i network can’t go on the other without physical modifications, a major impediment to High German furnish lines during World War II. Moving from i network to unopen to other inwards cyberspace ofttimes requires a roughly comparable reconfiguration — except that instead of beingness a foreign quirk of i particular edge region, it has to hap all the time. Future wars volition require conclusion superiority inwards a fourth dimension of fast-paced conflicts across multiple domains. Raytheon exec Rick Yuse outlines 5 advanced engineering enablers to gain critical advantage.
Today, Cyber Command is similar a railroad inwards the bad old days earlier standardized gauges, running different kinds of trains on different kinds of track. Specifically, today’s Cyber Command consists of four service components — Air Force, Army, Navy, in addition to Marine Corps — that are all trained to a mutual touchstone but equipped alongside different sets of hardware in addition to software.
While that heterogeneity was in all likelihood a necessary compromise to larn the forcefulness operational every bit shortly every bit possible, it makes it harder for multiple teams, especially teams from different service components, to portion information in addition to deed together every bit a larger force. But that form of coordination is what’s required to scale upwards from combatting ISIS cells in addition to online propaganda to waging cyber warfare against sophisticated adversaries similar Russian Federation in addition to China.
Maneuver inwards cyberspace doesn’t require physical motility the way it does inwards other domains, but it soundless requires bringing different units’ capabilities to deport at the right place, time, in addition to target inwards a coordinated way. If your teams don’t select compatible software, they can’t easily access the same networks, which way they can’t combine their forces. Unified endeavor requires a Unified Platform.
SOURCE: Air Force 2019 budget submission, Vol. 3A, page 779
Deliverables & Deadlines
The Unified Platform computer programme doesn’t tally tidily into a traditional acquisition framework, but budget documents in addition to anonymous sources outline how it volition run. Instead of touchstone step-by-step phases, the computer programme — alongside the Air Force acting every bit executive agent — involves fast-paced, overlapping activities that range, to quote the 2019 budget submission, from “prototype development, run a hazard reduction, testing, in addition to integration of cyber capabilities…. (to) delivering enhanced cyber effects to the Combatant Commanders.”
That in conclusion one, “delivering…effects,” specifically way getting working hardware in addition to software to Cyber Mission Force teams in addition to then they tin deportment real-world operations — fifty-fifty every bit evolution operate continues to refine that engineering based on operators’ feedback. And all this has to hap fast, alongside the goal beingness to “deliver capability” to operational users inwards financial 2019.
Again, in conclusion week’s $54 i one m thousand accolade to Northrop Grumman is simply the beginning. To maintain upwards alongside the footstep of both operational needs in addition to engineering improvements, the Unified Platform volition involve multiple “new in addition to existing contractual vehicles” (quoting the 2019 budget again), rather than a unmarried large contract. The vehicles volition include Defense Department-wide IT contracting mechanisms similar DISA’s Encore II in addition to fifty-fifty government-wide ones similar GSA’s Alliant, every bit good every bit contracts specifically written for the program.
UPDATED The regime volition live its ain “primary systems integrator” ultimately responsible for putting together all the pieces into a usable production for the Cyber Mission Force, an Air Force spokesperson told me, alongside Northrop Grumman assisting it every bit “systems coordinator.” Other companies may larn contracts to develop other aspects of Unified Platform, the spokesperson explained, but Northrop volition operate alongside these other developers to “provide the tools, processes, in addition to coordination necessary” to ensure they deliver their pieces of the Unified Platform correctly. UPDATE ENDS
Funding starts alongside a spike of $56 i one m thousand inwards financial twelvemonth 2019 (again, that’s later Congress cutting $2.2 i one m thousand from the request) earlier leveling off to $33.7 i one m thousand a twelvemonth inwards 2020-2023 (which is every bit far every bit detailed projections run). The 2019 coin is virtually a 50-50 mix of prototyping (Budget Activity 4) in addition to operational evolution (BA 7), but over fourth dimension the prototyping funds autumn off rapidly every bit evolution rises, virtually dollar for dollar.
So what’s beingness prototyped? Two things:
The maiden off in addition to fastest activeness — outset at nowadays in addition to finished past times Apr 1, 2019, halfway into the financial twelvemonth — is prototyping what budget documents telephone phone a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). SOA is an IT sector term of art: Instead of each user having a consummate packet of software on his or her device, they connect over a network to a key server offering an array of different applications, all written to a mutual touchstone to allow slow upgrades past times swapping inwards novel software in addition to hardware every bit desired. (This “loose coupling” is similar to the broader applied scientific discipline concept of modular opened upwards architecture, which uses mutual standards to plug-and-play all sorts of components, physical mechanism every bit good every bit software).
The minute prototyping effort, which also begins at in i lawsuit but lasts until Oct 1, 2021 (the terminate of the financial year), is “Minimum Viable Product build-up.” MVP is a especially confusing in addition to contentious flake of IT jargon, but the best definition I’ve seen is that, inwards essence, “minimum viable” way it’s the earliest version of the software that users tin interact alongside in addition to laissez passer on useful feedback on.
This approach a crucial purpose of so-called Agile development, something Northrop Grumman prides itself on doing. Agile has choke a widely derided buzzword but, when genuinely implemented properly, it involves getting user feedback every bit early on in addition to ofttimes every bit possible, allowing developers to brand constant little improvements, in addition to rapidly delivering an adequate production that tin live continually upgraded, rather than trying to fulfill a long listing of formal requirements inwards i large bang.
This prototyping operate overlaps alongside the evolution phase. Indeed, the Agile procedure doesn’t depict a vivid business betwixt the 2 inwards the same way traditional Pentagon practise does, in addition to the $54 i one m thousand accolade to Northrop seems to comprehend a mix of both.
The Minimum Viable Product operate that begins this calendar month continues (after the initial prototyping “build-up”) through 2023, the five-year defence program.
Agile Capability Development officially starts mid-2019 (the 3rd quarter of the financial year) in addition to runs through autumn 2023 (the terminate of the FY).
The initial Limited Deployment of the maiden off operational version of the Unified Platform — known inwards Agile jargon every bit an “epic” — occurs inwards the minute one-half of financial 2019.
Limited Deployments of farther upgrades volition follow through the terminate of 2023, alongside an incremental upgrade every half dozen months in addition to a major upgrade (called an “epic” inwards Agile jargon) every eighteen months.
But the budget documents also telephone phone for upgrades to accomplish “near-immediate integration into the UP baseline for delivery to cyber warfighters”: In other words, if cyber teams require something now, they shouldn’t select to hold off for the six-month upgrade cycle.
This is an extremely ambitious agenda, i that pushes the limits of acquisition bureaucracies designed for industrial historic menses majority production. Whether the Pentagon tin delineate it off is an opened upwards question. But if they can’t, the U.S. of A. volition fight inwards cyberspace at a serious disadvantage.
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