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The U.S. Navy is in the early stages of an endeavor to duplicate a successful program for upgrading the communications centers of its submarines and apply it to surface warships.

The concept and practice of cyber operations are topics of considerable discussion. I thought about what I could add to this dialogue, and I came down on the side of making one more case for a comprehensive, holistic view of cyber.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Air Force Portal was spoofed, causing a ripple of concern through the service branch. Nearly identical to the real site, the fake one aimed to fool people into entering their log-ins and passwords so the information could be captured by illicit sources. Such scams are on the rise across the Internet, and the U.S. Defense Department is not immune to the threat. But in a government department known for passing orders from the top down, the only way to secure the networks is through awareness at the lowest level.

The defense intelligence community is considering an unlikely pairing of architecture approaches to enable necessary budget cuts without savaging performance. This hybrid method would team convergence and federation to allow all the disparate members of the community to strengthen their interoperability while maintaining a degree of autonomy necessary for their unique mission requirements.

The U.S. Navy is operationalizing cyber throughout the service as it reconfigures both its force and its overarching network. The goal is to pull cyber operations out of the corner and into the middle of daily force activities as part of the Navy’s information dominance mission.

Cost, security and the transition from the existing network to a new one are the top criteria for determining which company wins the contract for the U.S. Navy’s successor to the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet. The Next Generation Enterprise Network, which is estimated will cost the Navy several billion dollars, would take a different contracting approach than its predecessor. This difference is only one of the departures from precedent that characterize the new network.

The U.S. Navy is in the midst of a revolution in its systems that eventually will connect information among the command and control, combat, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance realms. Not only does the effort introduce new technology, it also marks a deviation from previous development and acquisition cycles in an effort to roll out tools faster. Proving the value of the technology, sailors in the fleet are clamoring for the prototype even as developers work to transition the pieces into programs of record.

Pay no shipping on select packages when sent to APO or FPO addresses. But act fast because the deadline for combat-zone orders is December 3.

NASA's final space shuttle mission did not mark the end of U.S. space travel. Instead, scientists and engineers now have their sights set on exploring deeper into the solar system with plans to enable trips to Mars and asteroids. A plethora of projects are testing how to supply the food, liquids and fuel necessary for such journeys.