• Army awards two contracts as part of new Cyber Innovation Challenge
By Ellen Mitchell, Inside Defense, December 29, 2015
The Army has awarded two companies contracts to deliver next-generation, defensive cybersecurity prototype kits, the result of the service's first-ever Cyber Innovation Challenge.
The service awarded Critical Stack Inc. $3 million and Parsons Corp. -- in partnership with Wolf Den Associates -- $1.5 million to deliver "Deployable Defensive Cyberspace Operations (DCO) Infrastructure (DDI) prototype kits for Cyber Protection Teams (CPTs)," according to an Army notice released earlier this month.
Army Cyber Command, specifically the Cyber Protection Brigade and CPTs, would eventually use the kits as part of their defensive cyberspace operations mission and "to inform specifications prior to fielding decisions and potential broader procurement," the notice states.
Col. Bryan Stephens, the cyber focal director for the Army acquisition chief, told Inside the Army that the industry teams will deliver four sets of hardware suites each, for eight total, with the first prototypes expected to be delivered by April 2016.
The recent awards are the result of the Army's inaugural Cyber Innovation Challenge, a new model that looks to industry, particularly non-traditional defense contractors, to deliver prototype solutions "for rapid evaluation using a flexible acquisition model known as Other Transaction Authority (OTA)," the notice states. These awards are seen as a prototype for how the Army can quickly tap into emerging-edge cyber technology and deliver it to soldiers for feedback.
The Army received 12 responses for its DDI solicitation, released in June 2015, and had an initial down-select to the four vendors most likely to produce "viable, innovative prototypes." Those four solutions were evaluated in August at the Army Training and Doctrine Command Cyber Battle Lab at Ft. Gordon, GA.
The service is now in the midst of its second Cyber Innovation Challenge, "focused on attracting new cyber situational awareness technology and solutions that will help tactical commanders more accurately characterize the cyber domain and estimate the risk to mission from cyber threats," according to the Army notice.
For the second CIC, the Army held an industry day on Nov. 18, which approximately 250 people attended, representing more than 100 companies and Army organizations, according to Stephens. Based on the event, the service plans to release a "requirements synopsis in a request for white papers in late December or early January, followed by an initial down-select and evaluation of technologies in relevant lab environments." A contract could be awarded in the 3rd quarter of fiscal year 2016.
For each CIC, the Army works through a consortium of members from industry, academia and government. The service hopes to eventually hold three to four challenges per year "to help investigate priority requirements and complement CyberQuest, a larger TRADOC exercise beginning next year that will examine cyber requirements and relevant capabilities in an experimental environment," the notice states.
• US Army scraps $42m DARPA robot for being too noisy
By Anthony Cuthbertson, International Business Times UK, December 29, 2015
The United States Marine Corp has abandoned plans to use a robotic mule in combat situations, claiming that the amount of noise it makes risks giving away the position of troops to the enemy. The LS3, or Legged Squad Support System, had been the centre piece of a significant push by the US Army to integrate thousands of robots into its forces by 2030.
Development of the LS3 first began in 2008 after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offered a $32m (£21m) contract to Alphabet's Boston Dynamics. A further $10m was awarded in 2013 for testing the quadruped robot, demonstrating that it could cope with carrying loads of up to 180kgs across rugged terrain.
The noise produced by the gas-powered engine of the LS3 robot was cited as a major issue by Marines in tests and proved to be a challenge that engineers were unable to overcome.
"As Marines were using it, there was the challenge of seeing the potential possibility because of the limitations of the robot itself," Kyle Olson, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, told Military.com.
"They took it as it was: a loud robot that's going to give away their position. We tend to make things that are fanciful and strange.
Learning from it was a big part, and we're still learning."
An electric-powered robot named Spot was developed in an effort to solve the noise issue but it was not autonomous and its lighter frame meant that it was only able to carry loads of up to 18kgs. Spot's limited capabilities meant that it was not suitable for use in the field.
"I see Spot right now as more of a ground reconnaissance asset," said James Pineiro, head of the Ground Combat Element branch at Warfighting Lab. "The problem is, Spot in its current configuration doesn't have the autonomy to do that. It has the ability to walk in its environment, but it’s completely controller-driven."