simulation and training

A cyberspace operations facility grows with the burgeoning mission.

The U.S. Defense Department’s network operations training and education capabilities must continually evolve in the ever-shifting cyber realm. To meet that need, one of the department’s premier cyber ranges harnesses the power of simulation to support a full array of training, education, certification and military exercises for the warfighters.

The Joint Cyberspace Operations Range (JCOR) provides cyberspace operators and others the ability to train in realistic environments. The operators gain hands-on experience in protecting, defending and fighting in the networked arena without impacting real-world operational networks.

The JCOR allows users to connect disparately located cyber training systems from different services or agencies. The level of connections can vary depending on the users’ needs. “There are different ways of interfacing or integrating. We’re able to do, in many cases, both interfacing and integrating,” says Thomas May, technical project lead for the U.S. Air Force’s Simulator Training and Exercise (SIMTEX) range, which is the Air Force portion of JCOR. “If need be, we have been able to take the assets that other capabilities can provide and integrate them together so that they are actually components of our network.”