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U.S. Navy Seeks Cyber Solutions

Solicitation for interested cybersecurity companies is open until March 28.

The U.S. 7th Fleet's flagship, USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19), sails in the Philippine Sea in April 2021. The Navy is looking for industry cyber solutions to help protect the fleet in a contested maritime environment. Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Reymundo A. Villegas III

The Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic’s Palmetto Tech Bridge, or PTB, is seeking immediate industry solutions for cyberspace defense in denied, degraded and disconnected environments. Solutions will be evaluated at the Cyber Advanced Naval Technology Exercise in September.

The U.S. Navy’s Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic Palmetto Tech Bridge is seeking industry solutions for cyberspace defense in denied, degraded and disconnected environments. The effort is open to any U.S. company, academia or other organization and accepted proposals will be evaluated at the Cyber Advanced Naval Technology Exercise that starts September 6, 2022, and runs for two weeks.

The Cyber Advanced Naval Technology Exercise, or Cyber ANTX, is sponsored by the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, Marine Forces Cyber Command and Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR). Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic will use the exercise to further select company capabilities for a second phase, NAVWAR’s Steve Ghiringhelli reported.

Interested parties should submit their proposals—including a white paper and a so-called quad chart, amongst other items—via email directly to the NIWC Atlantic’s Palmetto Tech Bridge (PTB) by 5:00 pm Eastern Time on March 28.

“Scheduled to kick off Sept. 6, the overall purpose of the two-week-long Cyber ANTX is to enable technology owners, military engineers and operational service members to collaborate, offer feedback and find solutions for the warfighter that specifically align with U.S. national and maritime defense strategies,” according to Ghiringhelli’s report. “The exercise will be an unprecedented opportunity for technology developers to demonstrate their innovations in a real-time scenario, within the cyber domain, and alongside sailors and Marines who make the exercise as realistic as possible.”

NIWC Atlantic created the PTB in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2019. The PTB conducted its first technology challenge last summer, soliciting network, data center intelligent assistant, artificial intelligence-based and machine learning-enabled decision aid technology, followed by a second challenge effort in December, according to Greg Hays, the senior scientific technology manager for rapid prototyping and fleet exercises at NIWC Atlantic.

The technology bridge, ANTXs and other efforts by NIWC Atlantic and the Rapid Prototyping, Experimentation and Demonstrations Office are intended to bring in emerging capabilities quickly in the race to ensure technological superiority for the Navy, Marine Corps and joint warfighters. In addition to cybersecurity, the office supports the fast development, testing, fielding and sustainment of artificial intelligence, information technology hardware and software, autonomous systems, naval communications, command and control, mobility, big data management and analytics, spectrum management, electromagnetic warfare and other advanced technologies. The office is also working to shift the mindset of naval leaders to spur faster technology adoption, Hays emphasized.

Moreover, the ANTX events and the PTB’s Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) solicitations are meant to be an easier entry for companies in supporting the services.

“The Department of the Navy wants to turn the ingenuity of everyday Americans into new, viable capabilities,” said Hays. “By offering low-barrier-of-entry opportunities like CSOs and ANTXs, we can more quickly integrate new technologies into the fleet and win the information war.”

Navy and Marine leaders believe future operating environments will require a force that is capable of competing against adversaries for sea denial and sea control in a denied or degraded information environment. And this latest CSO from the PTB aims to bring in advanced cyber solutions for application in such complex maritime settings. The Cyber ANTX event will differ from past ANTXs in that organizers will integrate a complex, traditional exercise with the unique, state-of-the-art capabilities available at the National Cyber Range Complex in Charleston, Ghiringhelli noted.

For the exercise, organizers will explore technologies using the concept of an ashore team coordinating a cyber-incident response on several ships at once. Department of Navy and government experts will then assess the operational relevance of each capability based on mission threads, he said.

To submit a proposal, companies should email niwc_lant_ptbsubmissions.fct@us.navy.mil and include “PTB Cyber ANTX” on the subject line. For more details on how to construct submissions, visit https://e-commerce.sscno.nmci.navy.mil/. Open the yellow folder icon by the NIWC Atlantic title in the left column; Click “solicitation by number” and then look for number N65236-22-S-C001. Follow that link for further documents, including white paper and quad chart guidance. Questions can also be emailed to niwc_lant_ptbsubmissions.fct@us.navy.mil. The information does include responses to some already submitted questions for more guidance.

“Submitters are encouraged to submit concise, but descriptive, applications for consideration in the Cyber ANTX Experimentation Campaign. Technology/engineering innovations should be technically mature and immediately ready for demonstration in operationally relevant environments within six (6) months’ time,” the CSO states. “Technology/engineering innovations should not require significant science and technology development (RDT&E Budget Activity 1-3) to advance the state of technology, materials, develop novel sensors, algorithms, etc. Proposals shall include one White paper and one Quad Chart per submission. Submitters may provide multiple submissions for consideration. Unnecessarily elaborate brochures or proposals are not desired.”