The U.S. Navy Cyber Warfare Development Group (NCWDG) celebrated the opening of the Cyber Foundry with a ribbon cutting ceremony Feb. 18.
The Cyber Foundry is a development site for some of the U.S. Navy’s cyber-warfare capabilities by combining a modern physical environment, trained and experienced personnel, industry-leading processes and updated technology resources to enable the rapid development of offensive cyber capabilities.
The Cyber Foundry will provide support to both NCWDG personnel as well as Cyber Mission Force personnel across U.S. 10th Fleet.
“The Navy’s Cyber Foundry is the Navy’s cyber weapon building shipyard,” said Capt. Ann E. Casey, commanding officer of NCWDG. “With 76 Joint and 12 Maritime developer billets, lab space, and development operations networks at the unclassified and classified levels, the Foundry was built to deliver cyber weapons as directed by the Joint and Maritime priorities of Fleet Cyber Command.”
The Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David H. Berger and Vice Adm. Timothy “TJ” White, commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command / U.S. 10th Fleet toured the facilities prior to the ribbon cutting ceremony.
“We’re not fighting an enemy that people can see,” said Gilday. “And we’re not fighting a war where international norms exist. But make no mistake, we are in conflict day-in and day-out in the cyber realm and you all are on the front lines.”
The mission of the Cyber Foundry will integrate Navy and Marine Corps personnel and resources to further collaborate and innovate ways to tackle cyberspace challenges said Casey.
“I expect the foundry to provide a safe and collaborative environment for Joint and Maritime cyber weapon development,” said Casey. “We have purposefully built the space with growth in mind for server capacity, flexibility in mind for future allied and partner tool developer collaboration and a lab space for developers to get hands on equipment.
CNO also had the opportunity to speak with Sailor’s regarding the status and mission of the cyber community and reenlist a few Sailors during his visit.
“What the Navy’s cyber team Sailors and civilians do truly matters,” said Gilday. “It matters to our Navy. It matters to our country’s national security. And it matters to our family, friends and loved ones who may never know what you do for our nation.”
The mission of the Foundry and its personnel is to enable and provide rapid response to Navy and Joint warfighting requirements through reverse engineering, vulnerability discovery, and software development that targets adversary cyber and cyber-physical systems. The Foundry co-locates software developers, engineering and infrastructure support, development resources, and the hardware exploitation lab space for exploit/tool generation, capability testing, and customer engagement.
NCWDG serves as the Navy’s Center for Cyber Warfare innovation. For over 30 years, NCWDG has conducted technical research and development to create, test and deliver advanced cyber, cryptologic and electronic warfare capabilities to the Navy using rapid prototyping and acquisition authority. As FCC’s lead for cyberspace operations innovation, NCWDG military and civilian personnel experiment with and test new cyberspace capabilities to meet the strategic and operational goals of Fleet and Combatant Commanders.
FCC is responsible for Navy information network operations, offensive and defensive cyberspace operations, space operations, and signals intelligence. Comprised of more than 14,000 Sailors, Reservists and civilians stationed across the world, C10F is the operational arm of FCC and executes its mission through a task force structure similar to other warfare commanders.
