Defense Acquisitions: Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture Would Benefit from Defined Goals and Governance

Abstract

Cyberspace is a growing, human-made environment that touches many parts of life, including education, economic development, health, and other public services. For DOD, cyberspace is as important as the traditional land, sea, air, and space warfighting domains. To integrate these disparate cyber systems into a more cohesive capability, U.S. Cyber Command introduced an overarching vision for cyber capabilities known as the Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture. The Senate Armed Services Committee included a provision for GAO to review the status of the JCWA. This report (1) describes the JCWA concept, systems, and planned capabilities; and (2) assesses the extent to which DOD has defined interoperability goals and a governance structure to guide JCWA cyber system acquisitions. To do this work, GAO reviewed acquisition program documents and joint cyber warfighting requirements information. GAO conducted interviews with DOD officials from key cyber warfighting organizations, including Cyber Command, as well as JCWA program offices and stakeholders.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1149422

Entities

People

  • W. W. Russell

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Command And Control
  • Computer Networks
  • Congress
  • Cyber Warfare
  • Cyberspace
  • Cyberspace Operations
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Information Systems
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Software Development
  • Software Prototyping
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States Government
  • United States Strategic Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Space