The U.S. Navy Cyber Warfare Development Group (NCWDG) announced the opening of the Cyber Foundry at Fort Meade, Md., on Feb. 18.
The Cyber Foundry is a new development site for the Navy’s cyberwarfare capabilities and will support both NCWDG and Cyber Mission Force personnel across U.S. 10th Fleet.
NCWDG explains that the mission of the Cyber Foundry 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.” Moreover, the Foundry will combine “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 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.”
At the ribbon cutting ceremony Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, stressed the importance of cyber capabilities, “We’re not fighting an enemy that people can see. 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.”
Pentagon officials envision the Cyber Foundry expanding in the years to come.
“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,” said Casey.
