Who we are
Our History
From BlackHorse Solutions to Parsons Technical Operations Group—the training mission endures.
The Technical Operations Group's story starts before its name did. The company that became BlackHorse Solutions was founded in 2008 and took the BlackHorse name in 2018, but the conviction behind TOG has never changed: in an information environment where publicly available data is created and updated in real time, people, not tools, turn data into decisions.
That conviction was put to the test in 2012, when U.S. Army Special Operations Command established a requirement for a course that would train qualified Green Berets to operate in the digital domain with the same discipline, deconfliction and tradecraft they brought to the physical one. The concept became known as "digital door kickers," and the course was named Cyber Advanced Support Operations, or CASO. The first CASO class was delivered to Advanced Special Operations and Field Tradecraft graduates in the fall of 2013 at Camp Dawson, West Virginia, and classes ran there through early 2015. From 2015 the program transitioned into the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School as a program of record, where in 2016 it became TouchStone. A course our team built for the force is now taught by the schoolhouse itself; that is the standard every TOG course is held to.
We built for operators from day one, and we kept building. When BlackHorse Solutions took its name in 2018, CASO, Commercial Signature Reduction (CSR) and our subject-matter-expert support went onto NASA SEWP V and GSA IT Schedule 70 within months. In 2019 we opened a purpose-built training facility in Herndon, Virginia, with Fayetteville, North Carolina following. By then, instructors with more than 200 years of combined Department of Defense, Intelligence Community and private-sector experience had trained more than 2,500 graduates from Special Operations units, Intelligence Community organizations, law enforcement agencies, Fortune 100 companies and universities.
When travel stopped in 2020, we did not. Within weeks TOG moved the catalog to a secure, Tier C-compliant online platform, launched Advanced Digital Discovery (AD²), put CSR and the full two-week CASO certification online, and added the Dark Web Seminar and Safe Traveler series. CASO II followed in 2021 for graduates who needed advanced large-data targeting and reporting.
Parsons acquired BlackHorse Solutions in July 2021. The name on the door changed; the mission and the instructors did not. Today, as Parsons Technical Operations Group, we deliver CASO I, CASO II, Information Dominance CASO, AD², CSR and a growing set of specialty courses to Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, law enforcement and commercial customers, in Herndon, in Fayetteville, online, and by mobile training team worldwide. More than 3,000 graduates in recent years have learned the same three disciplines we started with: know yourself and the environment, know your tools and the data sources, and know your question.
Timeline
| When | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2008 | Company founded; it takes the BlackHorse Solutions name in 2018 |
| 2012 | U.S. Army Special Operations Command establishes the requirement for a course to train qualified Green Berets for cyber-enabled operations; the course is named Cyber Advanced Support Operations (CASO) |
| Fall 2013 | First CASO class delivered to Advanced Special Operations and Field Tradecraft graduates at Camp Dawson, WV; classes continue there through early 2015 |
| 2015–2016 | CASO transitions to the U.S. Army JFK Special Warfare Center and School as a program of record; becomes TouchStone in 2016 |
| 2018 | BlackHorse Solutions name adopted; CASO, CSR and SME support placed on NASA SEWP V and GSA IT Schedule 70 |
| 2019 | Herndon, VA headquarters and training facility open; Fayetteville, NC follows; 2,500+ graduates trained by instructors with 200+ years of combined experience; courses available to Australian government buyers |
| Late 2019 | Technical Operations Group (TOG) stands up as BlackHorse's training and readiness group |
| 2020 | Catalog moves online on a Tier C-compliant platform: AD², Digital Domain Discovery (3D), CSR, two-week CASO certification, Safe Traveler, Dark Web Seminar |
| 2021 | CASO II introduced; Parsons acquires BlackHorse Solutions (July) |
| 2022 | BlackHorse web presence consolidated into parsons.com |
| Today | Parsons Technical Operations Group: CASO I, CASO II, ID CASO, AD², CSR, COSMO, CR4CA, Dark Web Immersion, Safe Traveler and more; 3,000+ graduates in recent years; delivery in Herndon, Fayetteville, online and by mobile training team |
Past performance
- U.S. Army Special Operations Command: CASO requirement (2012) and course delivery to Green Beret ASO/FTC graduates (2013–2015)
- U.S. Army JFK Special Warfare Center and School: CASO transitioned as a program of record, taught as TouchStone since 2016
- Special Operations units within the Department of Defense
- Intelligence Community organizations
- Department of Homeland Security personnel
- Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies
- Fortune 100 companies and universities
- Australian government customers via the Digital Marketplace
- Available to U.S. Government buyers through GSA IT Schedule 70 and NASA SEWP V