The Army’s top cyber commander, Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon, met with acquisition officials for several days last week eager to find ways to buy capabilities within three years or less.
Cardon told reporters at a roundtable here that he wanted to buy “faster, better, quicker” since the cyber realm doesn’t really allow for the seven to 10 years a standard acquisition program usually takes.
He noted the hierarchy of acquisition, with DARPA producing really cool stuff when it hits the sweet spot, standard acquisition doing what it does, rapid equipping filling in combat gaps and in-house projects.
One of the difficulties with figuring out just what works best now is that Army Cyber Command and its equivalents are very new and are still not generating many requirements. “We have to, because that’s what drives the system,” he said.
On other fronts, Cardon says Army Secretary John McHugh is “very close” to making a final decision on establishment of an Army cyber center of excellence (approved in July by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno). The center, likely based at Fort Gordon, Ga., would be the one place where all Army cyber warriors received their training.
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