U.S. Navy Opens Center for Cyber Weapon Development

The U.S. Navy has opened a new "Cyber Foundry" - a development center specifically for offensive (not defensive) cyber capabilities.

“The Navy’s Cyber Foundry is the Navy’s cyber weapon building shipyard,” said Capt. Ann E. Casey, commanding officer of U.S. Navy Cyber Warfare Development Group (NCWDG). “With [88] developer billets, lab space, and development operations networks at the unclassified and classified levels, the Foundry was built to deliver cyber weapons as directed by . . . Fleet Cyber Command.”

The mission of the Foundry is to provide the Navy with reverse engineering, vulnerability discovery and software development to target adversaries' cyber and cyber-physical systems. It includes a "hardware exploitation lab" for exploit and tool creation. The Foundry sits under the Navy Cyber Warfare Development Group, which has been conducting the Navy's cyber, cryptologic and electronic warfare R&D for more than 30 years. 

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David H. Berger toured the facilities prior to a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday. 

“We’re not fighting an enemy that people can see,” said Gilday. “And we’re not fighting a war where international norms exist. But make no mistake, we are in conflict day-in and day-out in the cyber realm and you all are on the front lines.

"What the Navy’s cyber team sailors and civilians do truly matters,” Gilday added. “It matters to our Navy.  It matters to our country’s national security.  And it matters to our family, friends and loved ones who may never know what you do for our nation.”