The Air Force needs a quicker, more flexible acquisition system combined with personnel capable of writing requirements tailored to the cyber domain, said Michael Papay, Northrop Grumman’s cyber initiatives vice president. “Our typical contract types aren’t exactly a very good fit to building cyber security systems,” said Papay while speaking on an industry panel Thursday at AFA’s CyberFutures Conference in National Harbor, Md. “If we see a new threat come in a week from now, we have to be able to look over there and say, ‘Cover that one, too,’” explained Papay. The industry workforce also must be trained to provide solid feedback to help acquisition officials craft requirements that allow industry to meet the Air Force’s mission needs, he said. “That means agility in your technology, agility in your workforce, and agility in your acquisition environment is the only way we’re going to defeat this threat,” stressed Papay.
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
