The Defense Information Systems Agency's Global Operations Command, or DISA Global, recently celebrated the opening of a one-of-a-kind, 164,000 square foot facility to house cyber operators operating and defending DoD networks, training rooms and conference spaces.
The facility, located at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, was the vision and goal of DISA for more than a decade, Col. Paul Craft, DISA Global commander, told C4ISRNET in an interview.
"Over the last ten years the command realized the value and benefit of being in the center of the United States and through network convergence and other consolidation efforts within DISA to conduct operations in defense more effectively and more efficiently and more securely, consolidation really has occurred here at Scott [Air Force Base]," he said. "So over the last ten years there's been a plan to develop this world class facility to conduct operations and defense and even over the last three years that construction has actually been realized and taken place."
DISA Global, Craft said, is DISA's lead for operating and defending the infrastructure that makes up the Department of Defense Systems Information Network, which is part of the Department of Defense Information Network. That includes defending and operating internet access points, the Joint Regional Security Stacks, voice and video services, mobility and cloud gateways, as well as supporting mission assurance capability to support airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance with remotely piloted aircraft circuitry, global missile defense, nuclear command and control, support for the White House and lastly, act as the cybersecurity service provider for over 100 subscribers within DoD.
According to Craft, DISA Global's new facility is a key enabler in realizing the vision for DoD's premier globally focused DoD Information Network and cyber operations provider. Previously, personnel were dispersed among several geographic locations he said, while now "we are consolidated into one building enabling our command here to bring cyber protection teams on-board and conduct network assurance and network operations in one contiguous space."
"The facility provides direct interaction between network engineers, operators and also network defenders. It allows us to develop cyber teams that can quickly respond to network issues and also to determine any causes for any outages that may be occurring," he added. "This facility and how we integrate and conduct cyberspace operations really increases our responsiveness globally. It speeds our ability to operate and defend the DoD's network and it also increases the speed for us to deliver our enterprise services. All those capability sets that we do combined with this new facility really adds value to our warfighter."
The new building is also home to two of DISA's six cyber protection teams – one Air Force and one Marine Corps – as part of DISA's Cyber Command component teams under Joint Force Headquarters Department of Defense Information Networks, or JFHQ-DoDIN, which is responsible for operating and defending the DoDIN globally.
The teams at the facility are relatively new, Craft said. While the Air Force team has been on base for about a year and conducted "real world operations," the Marine Corps team arrived to Scott in July. The Air Force team is currently at a different maturity level than the Marines Corps team is, Craft said, and the new teams that arrived at Scott are training and working toward certification to become initially operationally capable in September.
"The majority of the [cyber protection] teams that have already been on net ... have all actually already conducted real world operations," he added. "We have a great facility here that enables training, that enables collaboration, that enables synergy like it's never been seen before because of the size of the facility and the capabilities within the facility, the many networks that we support from the facility and the intelligence that the cyber intelligence that we can integrate from the cyber protection teams so that we can get left of the boom and better defend the DoD's network."
The Scott facility will be able to house and connect to training exercises as well as host conferences.
"In this building we do have a world-class training facility, ample conference and teaming rooms that really allow us to bring hands on training on-site here, establish a communications universal training constructs, collaborate with other organizations that are both inside and outside the DoD," Craft said.
Regarding training, Craft said DISA is working to be able to link up and connect into training exercises remotely, calling it a work in progress.
Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.
