Observations on Navy Cybersecurity Investments in FY 2019

One of Deltek’s Federal Market Analysis team’s yearly rituals is to thoroughly review the federal government’s new budget when it is released each spring. Part of this is an analysis of the Department of Defense’s Procurement and Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation (RDT&E) budget requests for the upcoming fiscal year to identify what information technology investments are planned. This entry will focus on the Navy and Marine Corps.

Using a set of targeted keywords, FMA identifies programs that invest in certain technologies of interest to industry contractors. These technology “verticals” include cloud computing, big data analytics, cybersecurity/weaponry, and others. FMA’s analysis of the DOD’s fiscal 2019 budget request reveals that the United States Navy and Marine Corps intend to spend $816M in FY 2019 on programs which use cyber technology in one form or another.

The ambiguous way that the Navy and the DOD report budget request data means that identifying the specific cyber- spend in each individual program is a bit imprecise. Therefore, as you examine the following information please consider that the numbers presented below are the requested budget amounts for programs that plan to use cyber technology for a specific purpose (e.g., security, information assurance, battlespace capabilities, modeling, training, etc. etc.). The numbers presented here should not be considered the Department of the Navy’s entire cyber capabilities budget (defensive and offensive) for FY 2019. Moreover, since many of the DOD’s cyber- capabilities will fall within the classified side of the Defense budget the numbers here are likely a significant understatement. They are best viewed as indicators of how and where Navy program offices intend to use cyber-related technologies and services and the potential amounts they could spend on them.

Largest Programs

The table below lists the Navy and Marine Corps programs with a cyber component that we could identify arranged largest to smallest in dollar terms for FY 2019. The totals provided are from the Navy Procurement and RDT&E budget requests, indicating that these efforts may likely include incremental or new work that could be available to industry if a contract for products or services is competed. The $777M represented in the table accounts for 95% of the identified cyber opportunities, of which the top five programs make up 63%.

Summaries of Top 5 Programs

• Shipboard IW Exploit ($221M for Other Procurement) – FY 2019 funding supports Ship's Signal Exploitation Equipment (SSEE) Increment F(V)1/2 and SSEE Increment F(V)7/8 (Tactical Cryptologic System (TCS)), Anti-Access Area Denial (A2AD), Integrated Communications and Data System (ICADS) (AN/URC-148(V)), Afloat Cyber efforts, and Navy Tactical Data Network (NTDN). A2AD capabilities integrated into the SSEE Systems will enable maritime power projection in enabling surface vessels to disrupt, deny, degrade and defeat adversary (state and non-state).
• Info Systems Security Program (ISSP) – Communications and Electronics Equipment ($154M for Other Procurement) – FY 2019 funding will support investments in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Navy Cyber Situational Awareness (NCSA), Navy Cryptography (Crypto), Key Management (KM), and the global SHARKCAGE program, a federated Defensive Cyberspace Operations (DCO) enclave consisting of shore sensor nodes, analysis workbenches, and analytic nodes.
• Assessments and Evaluations Cyber Vulnerabilities ($49M for RDT&E) – FY 2019 funding supports cyber vulnerability assessments of major Navy weapons systems and cyber vulnerability assessments of critical shore infrastructure as directed by the FY 2016 and FY 2017 NDAAs. Funding will be used for assessments and non-recurring engineering for mitigations related to the Navy's major weapons systems identified in Joint Requirements Oversight Committee Memorandum (JROCM) 039-16 and on prioritized critical shore infrastructure prioritized.
• Info Warfare System/Electronic Warfare / Info and Computer Network Operations and Countermeasure Capability R&D ($47M for RDT&E) – FY 2019 funding will support development for software modeling for Information Operations (IO) Counter Measure Capability; development, testing and validation of electronic support and electronic attack techniques for Maritime Cryptologic Systems; vulnerability analysis and reverse engineering on emerging threats and targets; and development of specific Cyber tools, techniques, and operators in support.
• Information Systems Security Program – Operational System Development ($44M for RDT&E) – FY 2019 funding focuses on efforts that address the risk management of cyberspace, to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of systems and content processed, stored, or transmitted by performing the acquisition, modernization and sustainment of cybersecurity platforms and systems.

Conclusions

The Navy’s cybersecurity and related cyberspace efforts focus on broad and diverse efforts that range from strengthening cyber defenses and improving resilience to increasing cyber dominance and information warfare capabilities both afloat and ashore. The fact that the top two programs above are from the procurement budget and account for nearly 50% of the funding identified in the overall analysis indicates the Navy’s readiness to move forward with identified technologies and approaches. The majority of the other programs listed fall within the Navy RDT&E budget, suggesting a desire for and willingness to support new or developing cyber- capabilities.