You get a SCIF, you get a SCIF: Pentagon unveils ‘Secure Space Network’

U.S. Marines with Marine Aircraft Group 12 set up c-wire for a temporary sensitive compartmented information facility at Gwangju Air Base, Republic of Korea, during the Fiscal Year 2023 Korea Flying Training, April 19, 2023. KFT 23 is a combined training event focused on tactical execution of combat missions and is part of the ROK-U.S. alliance's routine, annual training program. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Tyler Harmon)

WASHINGTON — Contractors will soon have more options to perform classified work for the Pentagon through the newly announced “Secure Space Network.”

The effort aims to provide access to physical, classified spaces, known as Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs), by designing and deploying around 50 of them across the country.

“We must make it easier for capable companies to contribute at every level of the mission. Industry has identified access to classified environments as a major barrier, and the Secure Space Network directly addresses that challenge by opening the door to classified work for more companies,” James R. Mismash, Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Growth and Director of the Office of Small Business Programs, said in a release Thursday. “With strong partnership across the agency and support from Congress, this effort will strengthen our supplier base and help deliver the capabilities our warfighters need faster and at greater scale.”

Formally, a SCIF is can be any “area, room, group of rooms, buildings, or installation certified and accredited as meeting Director of National Intelligence security standards for the processing, storage, and/or discussion of sensitive compartmented information (SCI),” according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The rooms are reportedly built to defeat physical forced entry, audio eavesdropping and electronic spying, among other threats.

For many small businesses trying to do work with the military, access to classified information and SCIFs can be hard to come by. They are costly to establish and some companies just don’t have easy access to them. The intent of the Secure Space Network is to lower the barrier for more companies to do business with the Pentagon.

The release noted that the initial production will create a repeatable capability that can expand secure facilities as requirements grow. In addition, the intent is to build scalable production capacity to “surge” capability for rapidly increasing these accredited security workspaces.

The effort will be led by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment’s Office of Industrial Base Growth. The facilities can be placed at military installations, industry-focused locations such as APEX Accelerators , as well as other “mission-relevant” locations, the release said.

Engineering decision advantage for the warfighter

Multi-orbit mission capabilities are accelerating decision making across domains.

The department’s release was scant on meaningful details, however, eschewing the size of each SCIFs, how much the program has or the timeline.

2023年4月19日，在韩国光州空军基地举行的2023财年韩美联合飞行训练（KFT 23）期间，美国海军陆战队第12航空大队的队员们正在架设C型电缆，用于搭建临时敏感信息隔离设施。KFT 23是一项以战术执行作战任务为重点的联合训练活动，也是韩美同盟年度例行训练计划的一部分。（美国海军陆战队下士泰勒·哈蒙摄）

华盛顿——通过新宣布的“安全空间网络”，承包商很快将有更多选择为五角大楼执行机密工作。

这项计划旨在通过在全国范围内设计和部署约 50 个敏感信息隔离设施 (SCIF)，提供对实体机密空间的访问权限。

“我们必须让有能力的公司更容易地在任务的各个层面做出贡献。业界已将进入机密环境视为一大障碍，而安全空间网络通过向更多公司敞开机密工作的大门，直接应对了这一挑战，”美国陆军部负责工业基础增长的副助理部长兼小型企业项目办公室主任詹姆斯·R·米斯马什周四在一份声明中表示。“凭借全机构的强有力合作以及国会的支持，这项工作将增强我们的供应商基础，并帮助我们更快、更大规模地交付作战人员所需的能力。”

根据美国国家标准与技术研究院的定义，敏感信息隔离设施（SCIF）正式定义为“任何经认证和认可，符合国家情报总监安全标准，用于处理、存储和/或讨论敏感信息（SCI）的区域、房间、房间组、建筑物或设施”。据报道，这些房间的设计旨在抵御强行闯入、音频窃听和电子间谍活动等威胁。

对于许多试图与军方开展业务的小企业来说，获取机密信息和敏感信息隔离设施 (SCIF) 并非易事。建立这些设施成本高昂，而且有些公司根本无法轻易获得访问权限。安全空间网络 (Secure Space Network) 的目标是降低更多公司与五角大楼开展业务的门槛。

新闻稿指出，初始生产将建立一种可重复的能力，能够随着需求的增长扩展安全设施。此外，其目标是构建可扩展的生产能力，以便快速提升此类经认证安全工作空间的产能。

这项工作将由国防部负责采购和保障的副部长办公室下属的工业基础发展办公室牵头。新闻稿称，这些设施可以建在军事设施、以产业为中心的场所（例如APEX加速器）以及其他“与任务相关”的地点。

为作战人员提供工程决策优势

多轨道任务能力正在加速跨领域的决策制定。

然而，该部门发布的消息几乎没有提供任何有意义的细节，回避了每个保密信息隔离设施的规模、该计划的资金数额或时间表。