US Army PEO STRI Opens New Cyber Training Center

The USArmy Program Manager for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) againexpanded its cyber training capabilities on 20 August when it celebrated theformal opening of the new Cyber Center of Excellence, more formally known as headquartersof the Product Manager for Cyber Resiliency & Training Office. The facilityis the Partnership V Building, located in Orlando’s Research Park next to theUniversity of Central Florida (UCF).

Participatingin the ceremony were PEO STRI Program Executive Officer BG Michael Sloane, UCFPresident Thaddeus Seymour, and US House of Representatives Stephanie Murphy(D-7th District). Also addressing the audience was UCF Board ofTrustees Chair Beverly Seay. Both Seymour and Seay outlined the vitalpartnership between the university, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and themajor US military training commands headquartered in Research Park, includingPEO STRI. This partnership, which includes the State of Florida, has led to thecreation of the now five Partnership Buildings in Research Park that housecomponents of Army, Navy and Air Force commands and organizations.

CyberReadiness Concerns

Sloanesaid that in addition to providing readiness for high-intensity combatsituations, the US must prepare for electronic warfare and cyber warfare, notonly in the country but around the world. While recently visiting every global USCombatant Command, he pointed out that, in meeting with the leadership ofcountries in the regions, every senior leader asked him how they could protectagainst cyber warfare.

“Theyare afraid of cyber warfare, and they don’t know how to protect against it andhave nowhere near the resources that we have,” Sloane emphasized. “We need tohelp protect our partner nations as a second tier of defense.  Industry is also looking to us to helpresolve the cyber threat as well. This installation in Central Florida is apart of the solution not only for the US Services, but for our nation as well.”

UCF:“Essential Fabric”

Inaddition to partnering with PEO STRI in the development of Partnership V, UCFwill also be supporting its own cyber programs as well, Seymour said. He toldthe audience that the university has been building its cyber capabilities,including a Cyber Securities initiative. Seay said that UCF recognizes thatcyber security is of increasing importance in the country’s national security.

“Wealso know that we are facing a shortage of graduates in computer science andcyber security, along with researchers and talent for the job,” Seay pointedout. “So more and more of our students are entering the computer sciencecurriculum. UCF is a national Center of Excellence in computer science andexcellence in cyber certification.  Wemust produce leaders in cyber security and artificial intelligence in creatingthe essential fabric of the digital world.”

Attackon Society

Onceall of the PEO STRI cyber initiatives are underway in Partnership V, they willprovide a critical cyber node for training around the world, Murphy said. Shepointed out that PEO STRI currently has the only cyber training environment inthe country.

“Thereis never a more critical moment for this movement to be going forward,” Murphyemphasized. “I agree with General Sloane that we are under constant cyberattack, whether it is on our election system, our critical infrastructure orour military or businesses.  It requiresa whole of our society approach to meet this challenge, not just government andthe military. But PEO STRI and this partnership will take this challenge to awhole new level.”

Sloanesought to remind those involved in helping meet the cyber threat not to everfeel that such a threat might damage only a part of the country’sinfrastructure. “This is an existential threat as to who we are as a communityand to our democracy,” he concluded.

CyberMission

Accordingto PEO STRI Cyber Resiliency and Training Product Manager LTC Thomas Monaghan,Jr., the partnership concept goes beyond the Army and UCF, since hisorganization works with virtually all of the country’s military cyberorganizations, including the Army’s Cyber Command and the US CyberCommand.  He said that these majororganizations get together almost on a monthly basis to discuss requirements,funding and resources, output and throughput to determine “what has been donewell and what needs to be done.”

PEOSTRI stood up the Product Manager, Cyber Resiliency and Training team to focuson the Army’s Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE). At full operationalcapability, the PCTE will be a hybrid cloud-based training platform providingindividual sustainment training, team certification and the foundation for acollective training environment

The newCyber Center of Excellence is yet another element of the Army’s effort inOrlando to help mitigate the cyber warfare challenge. PEO STRI is theDepartment of Defense’s Acquisition Lead agent in the National Cyber Range and inexpanding Cyber Ranges across the country. The National Cyber Range programstaff and program will also be located in the new Partnership V Building. Thisprogram is planned to support other US services in their cyber programs, aswell as the Army. National Cyber Ranges provide advanced cyber research anddevelopment of new capabilities, analysis of malware, cyber training andexercises, and secure cloud computing and storage architectures.

For more about PEO STRI’s cyber efforts, read Robert W. Moorman’s “A Platform for Cyber Mission Training” from  MS&T  magazine Issue 2019-1  and other news items on MS&T.

- Chuck Weirauch