Army Awards No-Bid Cyber Range Deal to Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin has snagged a $14 million deal to help model hacks during cyber operation simulations, according to the Defense Department. 

During the 5-year contract period, the company will operate and sustain the National Cyber Range. The range is "designed to allow potentially virulent code to be introduced and studied on the range without compromising the range itself," Defense officials said in a contract notice released late Friday. 

Lockheed was the only company allowed to bid for the sole-source acquisition and is the incumbent contractor. The company joined the program in 2009, according to Lockheed's website. 

The work will be conducted in Orlando, Fla. The Army is using $5.6 million in fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation funding to initiate payments.

In November 2012, Lockheed won an $80 million, 5-year contract to continue operating the range, which began as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency undertaking.

The system consists of proprietary Lockheed technology and custom-configured government equipment, according to 2012 contract documents.

The range mimics the Internet and other networks to model cyberattacks, as well as evaluate the impact of intrusions on those networks, according to the Pentagon. It can be reconfigured within less than a day and run simultaneous simulations at multiple security levels -- unclassified through Top Secret.  

In 2012, Defense officials indicated that Lockheed is the only vendor with the expertise and technology to sustain the range's activities.

Any reconstruction of the range "in the same or a different facility (even if established with the current equipment) would place the laboratory in a different electromagnetic environment with unknown effects on event repeatability and reproducibility," the 2012 documents stated. “The techniques and procedures to execute [range] testing are specific to this hardware/software mix, and must be continued. The government must also continue to obtain these highly specialized services from Lockheed Martin and the current [range] facility to avoid substantial duplication of cost not expected to be recovered through competition."