WASHINGTON — Silvus Technologies developed a new radio waveform that will make it more difficult for adversaries to intercept and detect communications signals of the U.S. Army, the company announced Aug. 13.
Silvus has worked with the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s C5ISR Center — or the Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Center — since last August on developing a low-probability intercept/low-probability detect (LPI/LPD) waveform.
Silvus and the C5ISR Center are now exercising a six-month option period, bringing the total award to $2 million.
The funding for research and development will specifically go toward work the C5ISR Center is performing on a project called “Protected Communications for Manned/Unmanned Teams.” During the option period, Silvus is integrating several new capabilities with the LPI/LPD waveform, including the ability to shift operating frequency when communications are degraded, a capability to filter out interference and a technology that allows radios to control transmission power “to enable more discreet communications.”
The secure communications for the manned-unmanned teaming project is focused on “high-throughput, secure, and low observable communications capabilities for manned/unmanned teaming operations,” the Silvus news release said.
The new capability “brings together a powerful suite of anti-jam and LPI/LPD functions to enable robust, secure communications for the warfighter in congested and contested environments,” said Babak Daneshrad, founder and CEO of Silvus Technologies.
The new waveforms will be tested in lab evaluations starting this winter into spring 2021, according to Edric Thompson, spokesperson for the C5ISR Center. He added that field demonstrations will take place during the center’s ongoing Network Modernization Experiment in 2021 and Project Convergence 2021. For fiscal 2021, it has planned soldier touchpoint events at NetModX-22 and PC22.
In May, Silvus was awarded nearly $4 million to provide 1,000 of its tactical Mobile Ad Hoc radios for the Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System program.
Andrew Eversden covers all things defense technology for C4ISRNET. He previously reported on federal IT and cybersecurity for Federal Times and Fifth Domain, and worked as a congressional reporting fellow for the Texas Tribune. He was also a Washington intern for the Durango Herald. Andrew is a graduate of American University.
