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Pandemic doesn’t slow cyber training for the Army
While much of the national security community has had to rethink or delay operations and business practices because of the global pandemic, the Army's cyber school has been able to carry on business as usual due to prior investments in online tools and virtual training environments.
“Our virtual training environment had existed prior to COVID and that was really what our students logged into and that's where our training ranges are and where we do a lot of coding and where we ... conduct our courses,” Col. Paul Craft, the Fort Gordon-based school's commandant told Fifth Domain in an interview. “Because we had that environment, we were already prepared, we were already postured.”
This environment is called the Virtual Training Area or VTA. It is a conglomeration of open-source technologies that Army users can login from around the world on the open internet, not the closed DoD network, to access course prep materials, courses, tests or even to note curriculum changes.
Now, all the officer courses are conducted remotely in the unclassified environment. With the empty classroom space this creates, the enlisted student body can now meet in person and still follow Centers for Disease Control mandated social distancing standards.
For some of the classified material, officers still need to come into classes, also adhering to social distancing mandates and wear masks.
“We did not change. For us, it just occurred over a weekend where our students backed out and said ‘I'm going to log in [from home]' ... continue to train like we were logging into that virtual training environment and we're still going to conduct the classes,” Craft said. “We set up for a success that we didn't know we needed to have.”
This change is especially important as the cyber school expanded to teach “operations in the information environment,” which incorporates how cyber operations, electronic warfare and information operations interact. Within the last two years, the Army merged the electronic warfare and cyber branches together.
While much of the rest of the world has been forced to either halt operations or drastically change practices, many within the military cyber community have been able to lean on technical advancements to continue training.
In addition to the Army Cyber School, U.S. Cyber Command is conducting its annual major training event in June almost entirely remote relying on a virtual training platform for the first time called the Persistent Cyber Training Environment.
Craft explained that when PCTE comes fully online for all of the Defense Department, the plan is to migrate operations from the VTA to PCTE to conduct their training.
Migrating to an almost entirely remote environment on the officer side has also allowed the school to open up more seats to more trainees since they aren't limited to physical space. It's also reduced travel costs for those who need training, Craft said. For example, personnel can take courses from their home stations without having to travel all the way to Fort Gordon.
Moreover, senior leaders are able to audit courses or even conduct guest speaking sessions right from their desks without having to travel to the cyber school.
https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/army/2020/06/25/pandemic-doesnt-slow-cyber-training-for-the-army/
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The U.S. Air Force is looking to fund research into “deep tech” for eVTOL aircraft through its next round of Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract awards. By Elan Head An award-winning journalist, Elan is also a commercial helicopter pilot and an FAA Gold Seal flight instructor with helicopter and instrument ratings. Follow her on Twitter @elanhead View more posts NEWS U.S. Air Force will fund research into tech that enables eVTOL aircraft Monday July 6, 2020 The U.S. Air Force is looking to fund research into “deep tech” for eVTOL aircraft through its next round of Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract awards. The focus on technology research is one more aspect of Agility Prime, the Air Force's effort to accelerate development of the commercial eVTOL industry with the goal of establishing U.S. dominance in this emerging field. Speaking during an Agility Prime webinar on July 1, Dr. Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, suggested that the Air Force could help fill a funding gap left by Silicon Valley investors who have increasingly prioritized software enterprises that promise faster returns. “We want to take risk by investing in deep tech,” he said. “For programs like Agility Prime that are going to be tackling a lot of really tough challenges — from power to flight safety to logistics — there's a lot of really cutting-edge tech that has to be created, has to be matured and developed, if we're ultimately going to bring this market to bear in the U.S. first. Well, STTR is a great place to start tackling the hard challenges now.” STTR is a federal government program created to help commercialize compelling technology from across the U.S. research community. Like the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, it focuses on three phases — concept development, prototype development and commercialization — with various funding amounts available for different phases. Unlike SBIR, however, STTR requires that participating small businesses partner with an eligible nonprofit research institution. According to Roper, the Air Force devotes around $700 million per year to SBIR and another $200 million to STTR projects — not all of which will yield results. “We don't expect every company in STTR to succeed, just like we don't in SBIR,” he said. “This is an investment portfolio, so we're looking for return across the whole portfolio, not [on] a company-by-company basis. But we should start planting the long-lead seeds now, because if we don't, they're not going to bloom in time for us to harvest in a way that will benefit programs like Agility Prime.” The Air Force's next STTR Open Topic solicitation will include an Agility Prime focus area, intended to survey a large scope of technologies including autonomy, advanced aircraft materials and manufacturing, novel acoustics techniques, and sense-and-avoid systems, to name a few. The Air Force expects to award an estimated $10 million worth of phase one contracts for values up to $150,000 within 90 days. According to Jared Evans, a partner in AFVentures who also spoke during the webinar, phase two contracts are expected to have an initial value of $750,000, with the most promising projects then eligible for a “strategic fund increase” up to $30 million. “Ultimately, our end goal here is . . . transitioning to a full program of record,” he explained. “There's no STTR funding for that, but there's also no limit on government input or private investment.” In advance of the solicitation, the Air Force innovation division AFWERX will be hosting a virtual TeamUp event with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) on July 15 and 16. The first day of the event will be open to the public and will include an overview of STTR funding opportunities, plus a virtual trade show. The second day will be restricted to Agility Prime ecosystem members who have chosen to register for a virtual booth, with the aim of facilitating connections that could lead to collaborative STTR proposals. Registration for the event is available here. “TeamUp events like this one will provide opportunities for multiple stakeholders to come together and compete with speed,” stated AFWERX director and Agility Prime team lead Col. Nathan Diller in a press release announcing the event. “Just like AFWERX and AFRL are teaming up to bring cutting-edge commercial technology together with world-class research, we are encouraging entrepreneurs and researchers from around the country to ‘TeamUp' in a way that strengthens our national security and prosperity.” https://evtol.com/news/air-force-agility-prime-sttr/