Much to the exasperation of the locals, Charleston, South Carolina is repeatedly named in world-renowned sources as one of the “Best Small Cities in the WORLD”.  What the hordes of invading tourists (pre-pandemic, of course) won’t see is the new National Cyber Range Charleston (NCRC).  Here’s a quick look at what’s being built among the palmettos and cypress swamps.

The recently updated National Defense Strategy warns we can no longer assume unfettered access to cyberspace during a conflict.  Every branch of the government is evaluating their assumptions on how they will gather information and communicate in a fight, and what they will do if their communications are disrupted by a tech-savvy adversary.

National cyber ranges are virtual environments that enable government organizations to test their cyber capability.  It’s important to rehearse military operational plans and develop new tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP’s) that can work in a contested cyber landscape. These ranges are distributed computing environments with technical experts that can support exercises and operational planning.

Today there are five functional national cyber ranges: Camp Smith, HI, Huntsville, AL, Orlando, FL, PAX River, MD, and Lexington, MA.  With increasing demand for their services, these facilities have become overwhelmed.  Resources have been allocated (and contracts are now being let) to build out three more ranges at Charleston, SC, Eglin AFB, FL, and a second facility at PAX River, MD.  These sites together will provide an integrated and interoperable constellation of facilities.  Government entities will be able to perform large-scale, complex and distributed cybersecurity events across R&D, S&T, DT&D, OT&E, training, exercise and mission rehearsal domains.

What this means in Charleston is a 10,500 square foot building (affectionately called “the complex”), divided into two sections.  Half is Open-Secret Collateral and used for the event planning and coordination staff.  The other half is a SCIF and is used for execution of the events.  It includes everything needed to host a classified event:  compute, storage, memory, licensing, a management tool suite, an environment tool suite and a security architecture to let the planners segregate events (enabling multiple events to run at the same time for different customers).

The Cyber Range depends on an integrated automation framework to enable quick set-up with detailed operational customization and completely sanitization between exercises.  Typical uses for the range include vulnerability assessments, cyber mission force training, product/solution evaluations and architecture evaluations.  Being able to identify problems BEFORE they are needed in conflict is essential to achieving our national security.   We can expect this to be a high growth area for years to come.

About the Author

Chris Ward

Chris Ward (Commander, U.S. Navy (Retired)) has over 30 years of experience helping the Department of Defense (DoD) solve difficult technology requirements. She has a proven track record of building, maintaining, securing and certifying technology solutions for use within DoD. She works with Industry to identify key opportunities and provides strategic guidance and support. She is a strategic analyst and cybersecurity professional who has deep expertise in improving enterprise cybersecurity.