Threat Countermeasures

Defense forces rely on electromagnetic dominance for command, control, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and related applications that use the electromagnetic spectrum. Similarly, spectrum use by our adversaries, and extensive unaffiliated commercial uses result in an increasingly congested, space, time and frequency environment. Severe pressure on available spectrum from all spectrum users creates a situation demanding significant adaptivity and flexibility of our communications systems to communicate successfully and achieve mission goals.

Based on promising results obtained under the Crosshairs program, the C-Sniper program will develop the capability to detect and neutralize enemy snipers before they can engage U.S. Forces, with the goal of delivering a field testable prototype suitable for experimentation as an integrated part of the DARPA Crosshairs system. The C-Sniper system will operate day and night from a moving military vehicle and provide the operator with sufficient information to make a timely engagement decision.

The rapid pace of innovation in software and hardware over the past three decades has produced computational systems that, despite security improvements, remain stubbornly vulnerable to attack. Although clean-sheet design can produce fundamental security improvements that gradually diffuse into the installed base, this process can take years.

DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge is a first-of-its-kind tournament designed to speed the development of automated security systems able to defend against cyberattacks as fast as they are launched.

From phony news on Web sites to terrorist propaganda on social media to recruitment videos posted by extremists, conflict in the information domain is becoming a ubiquitous addition to traditional battlespaces. Given the pace of growth in social media and other networked communications, this bustling domain of words and images—once relegated to the sidelines of strategic planning—is poised to become ever more critical to national security and military success around the globe.