Defense contractor Northrop Grumman said Wednesday that it has been awarded a contract to build a cyber test range for the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra campus at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Australia.
The ADFA is a partnership between the Australian Defence Force and the University of New South Wales, with the primary mission to train and educate future leaders of the Australian Military.
The new Cyber Test Range will help Australian military develop, test and evaluate integrated cyber technologies, the company said in a statement.
“We are proud to contribute our extensive cyber test range experience and capabilities to UNSW Canberra, at ADFA, and are looking forward to an enduring partnership,” said Kathy Warden, vice president and general manager for Northrop Grumman’s Cyber Intelligence division. “This award reaffirms our dedication to providing our allies with best-value cybersecurity solutions, and our commitment to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.”
In the United States, The Northrop Grumman Foundation is a presenting sponsor of the Air Force Association’s (AFA) CyberPatriot program, the nation’s largest and fastest growing high school cyber defense competition. In 2012, more than 1,000 teams – a 53 percent increase over 2011 – participated in the Cyber Patriot competition from all 50 states, and U.S. Department of Defense dependent schools in Europe and the Pacific, as well as teams from Canada.
Other collegiate initiatives include the launching an honors program with the University of Maryland called the Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students, which the company says will immerse undergraduate students in all aspects of the field to help meet growing national cybersecurity workforce needs.
Northrop Grumman also supports the Mid-Atlantic Regional and the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, and leads a Cybersecurity Research Consortium, an industry/academia partnership addressing the cybersecurity challenges of the future, and is partnered with the University of Maryland Baltimore County Research Park Corporation to create a pipeline for new cybersecurity technologies called the Cync Program.