{
 "license": "CC-BY-4.0",
 "attribution": "Fide AI, Agentic Cyber Explorer",
 "url": "https://agentic-cyber-explorer.pages.dev/events/darpa-castle-program-awards-2024/",
 "asOf": "2026-09-26",
 "id": "darpa-castle-program-awards-2024",
 "date": "2024-07",
 "datePrecision": "month",
 "title": "DARPA CASTLE program awards contracts to train reinforcement-learning agents for network defence",
 "lane": "defense",
 "kind": "program",
 "summary": "DARPA's CASTLE program aims to build a toolkit that instantiates realistic network environments and trains AI agents, using reinforcement learning, to harden networks against advanced persistent threats. The program page says it will publicly release toolkit-generated datasets as defensive benchmarks; public contract records show awards under solicitation HR001123S0002 in mid-2024.",
 "whyItMatters": "It is a government-funded effort to create repeatable, measurable environments and datasets for evaluating autonomous defensive agents.",
 "actors": [
  "darpa",
  "five-directions"
 ],
 "topics": [
  "autonomous-defense"
 ],
 "atlas": [
  "eval-environment"
 ],
 "artifacts": [
  "castle"
 ],
 "sources": [
  {
   "url": "https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/cyber-agents-for-security-testing-and-learning-environments",
   "publisher": "DARPA",
   "title": "CASTLE: Cyber Agents for Security Testing and Learning Environments",
   "type": "primary",
   "accessed": "2026-09-25"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://www.highergov.com/contract-opportunity/hr001124c0431-cyber-hr001123s0002-hr001124c0431-award-hr0011-24-c-0431-five-directions-inc-0ac78/",
   "publisher": "HigherGov",
   "title": "HR001124C0431 Cyber Agents Security Testing and Learning Environments award (Five Directions Inc.)",
   "date": "2024-07-01",
   "type": "secondary",
   "accessed": "2026-09-25"
  }
 ],
 "keyFacts": [
  {
   "fact": "CASTLE will explore reinforcement learning to automate network hardening and publicly release toolkit-generated datasets as benchmarks.",
   "locator": "DARPA program page, Summary"
  },
  {
   "fact": "A CASTLE award (HR001124C0431) of $5,047,515 to Five Directions, Inc. is listed with an award date of July 1, 2024.",
   "locator": "HigherGov award record"
  }
 ],
 "significance": 2,
 "fideQuestions": [
  "FID-076"
 ],
 "methods": [
  "ctf-benchmarks"
 ],
 "review": "assistant-drafted",
 "addedOn": "2026-09-25"
}