Academy pitches new ‘cyber center’ for mids

[unhappycamper]

Academy pitches new ‘cyber center’ for mids
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 28, 2010 14:04:01 EDT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Naval Academy is in the early stages of planning a new, $100 million cyber-warfare education center here on its Yard along the Severn River, top officials said Monday, saying the school needs new facilities to give midshipmen full training in computer warfare.

Although academy leaders said they haven’t formally pitched the idea to top Navy leadership in the Pentagon, they said if the fleet keeps expecting more and better cyber-qualified officers from Annapolis, the school needs newer, bigger facilities in which to train them.

“We’re the supplier,” said academy superintendent Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler. “What does the customer want to pay for?”

The Naval Academy’s new “Center for Cyber Security Studies” would include the latest computer hardware, laboratories and classroom space, so that instead of training a small number of mids in computer combat, it could train the whole brigade.

But even though officials gave the academy Board Visitors a detailed pitch for why the school needs a new cyber center — complete with PowerPoint slides depicting the cramped, homey facilities mids now use, and an artist’s mockup of the new building on the river’s edge — officials said there was as yet no funding or formal plans to go ahead.