The Internet to be made more useful for the U.S. military
DARPA awarded Lockheed Martin a $31 million contract to lead a team which will redesign the Internet to make it more suitable for military use
Lockheed Martin announced it has won a $31 million contract from DARPA to make the Internet more suitable for military use. Microsoft will also be involved in the effort. The main thrust of the effort will be to develop a new Military Network Protocol, which will differ from old hat such as TCP/IP in that it will offer “improved security, dynamic bandwidth allocation, and policy-based prioritization levels at the individual and unit level.”
“New network threats and attacks require revolutionary protection concepts,” said John Mengucci, president of Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Services-Defense. “Through this project, as well as our cyber Mission Maker initiatives, we are working to enhance cyber security and ensure that warfighters can fight on despite cyber attacks.”
Lockheed will be partnered with Anagran, Juniper Networks, LGS Innovations, Stanford University, and Microsoft in developing the MNP. Apart from that, Lockheed’s Information Systems & Global Services-Defense division will work on new hardware. According to the firm:
Lockheed Martin’s team will develop router technologies that include strong authentication and self configuration capabilities to improve security, reduce the need for trained network personnel and lower overall life cycle costs for network management.
The original Arpanet, which turned into the TCP/IP Internet, was developed for DARPA’s predecessor. It was at least nominally intended for military use, though in reality it took off first in academia. Lewis Page notes that what DARPA is doing is, in effect, repeating the process all over again.
