The Defense Department’s National Cyber Range earlier this month concluded a one-year beta-operation phase, announced DARPA. During this time, various Pentagon organizations conducted seven large-scale cyber experiments, according to the agency’s release. Beta operations involve ironing out the bugs of a system before the final configuration. The range is a secure, self-contained facility at which defense officials can validate cyber technologies by emulating complex defense and commercial networks. It is rapidly reconfigurable and can represent diverse types of networks and accommodate multiple activities simultaneously at different classification levels, states the release. Such flexibility is vital given the dynamic nature of real-world cyber threats, according to DARPA. The range transitioned in October from the agency’s management to the oversight of the Pentagon’s developmental test and evaluation shop, states the Nov. 13 release.
Trainees in Basic Military Training and technical school no longer have the option to try alternate PT drills if they fail an initial assessment, according to a policy change the Air Force made in April. The move is part of a larger shift out of the classroom and into hands-on,…