Sequestration cuts have delayed the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency‘s efforts to build cybersecurity capabilities with private firms and academic institutions, the agency’s director said Wednesday.
Arati Prabhakar said the agency has cut and delayed dozens of contracts and awards for its cybersecurity programs, the Washington Business Journal reported Thursday.
Jill Aitoro writes 2011 Budget Control Act sliced $202 million from DARPA’s fiscal 2013 funding, representing an 8 percent budget cut to all its programs, including its “Plan X” program.
“We have about a dozen major program elements and each of those had to take this across-the-board cut,” Prabhakar said, according to the report.
Prabhakar said the agency aims for the Plan X program to become part of the military’s capabilities and help DARPA manage and control cybersecurity through a new electronic warfare, alternative GPS technologies and technology infrastructure.
