To combat the cyberspace threat facing the nation, an integrated combination of technology, education, training, and exercising is needed. The Air Force cyber simulator journey began in 2001 with a small exercise. Today synthetic-live environments (cyber simulators) are in use for training and exercises, mission rehearsal, and tool development for cyberspace operations. The Air Force has 78 simulators at 3 locations in Illinois, Mississippi, and Florida. Solutions similar to the Air Force are also in use by the Navy (Navy Cyber Operations Range (NCOR) in Norfolk, US Strategic Command (STRATCOM), STRATCOM Cyber Operations Range (SCOR) in Nebraska, and the National Guard, Army Guard Enterprise Network Training Simulator (ARGENTS) in Arkansas and seven other States. In all, there are over 100 active simulators in the US. Evolving over time, the requirements of the cyber simulator have grown from just replicating the operational day-to-day environment of the blue force to modeling the environment of the red threat. The environment now encompasses a world-wide routable gray space and is interoperable with other synthetic environments.
Cyber simulators expose operators to various network situations and threats and advance their technical skills. They are used in validating solutions and the development of innovative approaches enhancing operational competencies. The risk-free environment of a cyber-simulator and scenario based stimuli allow crews to experience and conduct aggressive activities to: disrupt, obstruct, and destroy the integrity of the network; infiltrate a simulated computer network for intelligence collection; and train on procedures and tactics to defend and protect the network. Fidelity and realism throughout the physical and virtualized platform, appliances, and applications is paramount and must also be present in traffic generation, data, and the synthetic Internet. While these key factors are critical to an immersive experience, the simulator must be constructed within a rapidly reconstitutable environment with the capability to start, stop, and re-roll scenarios from a requisite state.