Technical Memo

2026/06/14

Military Wireless Communications Field

Summary of Contract Research and Development in the Military Wireless Communications Domain at Xyronics Co., Ltd., the Artificial Evolution Research Institute (AERI), and the Intellectual Property Strategy Institute Co., Ltd.

 

Xyronics Co., Ltd., the Artificial Evolution Research Institute (AERI), and the Intellectual Property Strategy Institute Co., Ltd. have been awarded contracts for the specific, cutting-edge research and development themes (R&D programs and technical challenges) listed below, targeting the following four major ongoing core technology domains ① to ④ of military wireless communications, in which DARPA, the U.S. Tri-Service Research Laboratories (AFRL/ARL/NRL), the European Defence Agency (EDA), and major prime vendors (L3Harris, RTX, BAE Systems, etc.) are currently investing their full efforts.

1. Four Major Core Technology Domains of Military Wireless Communications

•                ① Software Defined Radio (SDR)

A technology that switches between VHF/UHF/millimeter-wave bands, various cryptographic algorithms, and frequency hopping patterns solely by rewriting software (waveform applications) without changing the hardware.

•                Major Players: L3Harris (Falcon series), Thales (SYNAPS), Rohde & Schwarz (SOVERON).

•                ② Advanced Tactical Data Link (TDL)

A network that shares blue-force and red-force positional information and targeting data in real time during beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) communications or between high-speed moving fighter aircraft and naval vessels.

•                Link 16: The current NATO standard. RTX (Collins) and L3Harris split the terminal market.

•                MADL (Multifunction Advanced Data Link): A high-speed UHF-band data link adopted for the F-35 and other platforms that does not compromise stealth characteristics (the radio wave directionality is extremely sharp, making it difficult for enemies to detect). Led by RTX and Northrop Grumman.

•                ③ Resilient Communications (ECCM) and LPI/LPD

Communication technologies to withstand enemy electronic jamming (ECCM: Electronic Counter-Countermeasures) and avoid interception by enemy radio wave detection systems (LPI: Low Probability of Intercept / LPD: Low Probability of Detection).

•                Technical Approaches: Ultra-high-speed frequency hopping (thousands of times per second), military advancement of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), ultra-directional millimeter waves.

•                Major Players: BAE Systems (Electronic Warfare division), RTX, General Dynamics.

•                ④ In-Line Network Encryption (HAIPE)

A technology that performs real-time encryption at the hardware layer when highly classified (Top Secret, etc.) data flows over IP networks.

•                Major Players: General Dynamics Mission Systems. The company's "TACLANE" is the de facto standard authorized by the NSA (National Security Agency) (Type 1 Encryption) and holds the choke point of U.S. military and government communication networks.

① Research and Development Themes in the Software Defined Radio (SDR) Domain

Physical layer and computational resource management technologies designed to transform SDR from a mere "waveform switcher" into an "autonomously evolving, distributed co-operative electromagnetic spectrum warfare platform."

•                Dynamic Scheduling Optimization for Heterogeneous Computing

•                Overview: Technology to execute complex military waveforms and mathematical processing with ultra-low latency and low power consumption within processing systems that mix CPUs, FPGAs, GPUs, and general-purpose AI accelerators (NPUs).

•                Core Challenge: Optimizing memory exchange and buffer allocation among non-uniform processors under open-source SDK environments such as GNU Radio to achieve both hardware abstraction and processing efficiency (a DARPA "SDR 4.0"-like approach).

•                Signal Identification and Physical Layer Spectrum Awareness via RF Machine Learning (RFMLS)

•                Overview: Technology that uses deep learning to distinguish critical signals from noise within a millisecond timeframe from massive, wideband radio frequency environments.

•                Core Challenge: RF Fingerprinting. Using AI to learn device-specific radio wave "distortions" caused by microscopic manufacturing imperfections in semiconductors to identify and track individual sending units of friends or foes in real time at the physical layer, without relying on software IDs such as MAC addresses (DARPA RFMLS).

•                Cognitive/Adaptive Electronic Warfare (Adaptive/Behavioral EW) Algorithms

•                Overview: An in-the-field (battlefield-responsive) machine learning model that detects and characterizes "unknown wireless threats (novel jamming waveforms or encrypted communications)" encountered on the battlefield in real time, automatically synthesizing counter-waveforms on the spot.

•                Core Challenge: Moving away from traditional laboratory-based signature matching (manual updates). Constructing a behavioral learning model that back-calculates the enemy's operational algorithms from active changes in the radio wave environment (over-the-air observations) (such as the DARPA BLADE program).

•                Heterogeneous Integration of Ultra-Wideband RF Front-Ends and Compound Semiconductors (GaN/InP)

•                Overview: Physical layer research to cover the spectrum from the HF band of a few MHz to the millimeter-wave band of tens of GHz with a single module.

•                Core Challenge: Developing wideband low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) and power amplifiers (PAs) using Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Indium Phosphide (InP) to achieve high density and high output, as well as microfabrication manufacturing processes to three-dimensionally integrate (3D-IC) them using chiplet technology.

② Research and Development Themes in the Advanced Tactical Data Link (TDL) Domain

Topologies and protocols for integrating multi-domain (land, sea, air, space, cyber) operations and conducting high-capacity communications while maintaining a stealth environment.

•                Airborne Dynamic Cross-Conversion Gateway for Heterogeneous and Cross-Domain Data Links

•                Overview: A system that relays and translates (performs format conversion) in real time between the advanced LPI/LPD data links of 5th-generation aircraft (F-35's MADL, F-22's IFDL) and the existing standards of 4th-generation aircraft and naval vessels (such as Link 16).

•                Core Challenge: An architecture that performs cross-packet conversion and routing of data with different protocol stacks with minimal latency using airborne relay nodes (unmanned aerial vehicles like the RQ-4, pod-mounted systems, Freedom 550, etc.) without sacrificing stealth characteristics (advancement of BACN).

•                High-Speed Mobile Mesh Networks (MANET) Using Ultra-Directional Millimeter Waves / Ku and Ka Bands

•                Overview: A technology that forms an ad-hoc network between fighter jets and UAVs moving at high speeds in three dimensions by pinpointing and radiating radio waves toward each other.

•                Core Challenge: Ultra-high-speed beamforming control of Advanced Antenna Arrays (AAA). Spatial correction algorithms that enable beams to track each other within sub-milliseconds even when the aircraft turns at supersonic speeds, maintaining high-bandwidth (gigabit-class) links in the Ku/Ka bands.

•                Autonomous Recomposability of Distributed Mosaic Networks

•                Overview: A network for Mosaic Warfare where a large number of collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) / small unmanned aerial vehicles dynamically cooperate, eliminating "Single Points of Failure" such as AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System).

•                Core Challenge: A masterless (fully distributed) dynamic routing protocol predicated on a large number of nodes being destroyed, departing, or newly entering the network. Autonomous AI self-controls the network topology.

•                Next-Generation Tactical Data Link Standard Formulation for Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T)

•                Overview: An ultra-low latency data link to share raw sensor data (Raw Data) between Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter aircraft and autonomous collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) to execute collaborative combat computing via distributed AI.

•                Core Challenge: Extremizing dynamic time-slot allocation at the MAC layer and burst transmission technologies to bring packet loss close to zero even in electronic attack (EA) environments.

③ Research and Development Themes in the Resilient Communications (ECCM) and LPI/LPD Domain

Extreme physical and MAC layer technologies that withstand severe electromagnetic jamming environments and deny red-force passive sensors the ability to perform direction finding and geolocation (DF/geolocation) based on radio emission.

•                Cognitive Anti-Jamming via Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA)

•                Overview: A technology where, when an enemy deploys active jamming (disruptive radio waves) against specific frequency bands, AI scans the surrounding environment on a 1-nanosecond scale, autonomously detects open spectrum, and evades the threat.

•                Core Challenge: Reinforcement learning algorithms that predict enemy jamming patterns (sweep, spot, smart jamming, etc.) in real time, alongside high-speed tunable filter technologies that track those predictions.

•                Maximization of LPD via Dynamic Transmit Power Control (MAN-PC: MANET Power Control)

•                Overview: A technology that narrows down transmission power output in real time to the "absolute minimum required" to maintain communication, completely delaying and denying radio frequency detection (DF) by surrounding enemy passive sensors.

•                Core Challenge: Advanced feedback control that anticipates fading (radio wave fluctuations) and distance variations between nodes to continuously track the limit threshold of output just before packets are dropped.

•                Ultra-High-Speed Chaotic Frequency Hopping (Advancement of FHSS)

•                Overview: A technology that achieves hopping rates (frequency transitions) at the scale of thousands to tens of thousands of times per second, making interception and follower-jamming by enemy wideband digital receivers (such as DRFM) physically impossible.

•                Core Challenge: Embedding not just cryptographically secure pseudo-random numbers but also mathematical models of non-linear chaotic dynamical systems (chaotic synchronization) into the hopping "transition patterns," generating waveforms that are deterministic yet appear to the enemy as nothing but pure white noise.

•                Proximity Millimeter-Wave (60 GHz Band) / Terahertz-Wave (THz) Tactical Communications Leveraging Atmospheric Attenuation Characteristics

•                Overview: "Physical LPI/LPD" that deliberately exploits the radio wave absorption peak caused by oxygen molecules (such as the 60 GHz band where atmospheric attenuation is severe) and the characteristics of the terahertz band to build ultra-large-capacity, ultra-high-speed meshes within close range while completely concealing the signals from enemies several kilometers away.

•                Core Challenge: Adaptive modulation and demodulation technologies capable of responding to rapid attenuation fluctuations under rainfall, fog, and combat smoke/haze environments, alongside the dynamic maintenance of omnidirectional mesh structures providing 360-degree coverage.

④ Research and Development Themes in the In-Line Network Encryption (HAIPE) Domain

Technologies positioned directly beneath IP network routers and switches to guarantee government and military highest confidentiality (Top Secret, etc.) while achieving both ultra-low latency processing at line rate and cryptographic robustness.

•                Hardware (HAIPE) Implementation and Acceleration of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)

•                Overview: Technology to embed lattice-based cryptography (such as ML-KEM/Kyber) and code-based cryptography, which can withstand decryption by quantum computers (Shor's algorithm, etc.), into the ASICs/FPGAs of HAIPE devices.

•                Core Challenge: Designing dedicated computational cores to handle public and secret key data sizes and computational loads—which bloat compared to conventional cryptography (AES/RSA, etc.)—at line rates of 100 Gbps or higher (real-time processing with zero latency).

•                Dynamic Policy Control for Multi-Level Security (MLS/MILS) Based on Zero Trust Architecture

•                Overview: Technology to completely isolate data of different confidentiality levels (Top Secret, Secret, Unclassified) physically and logically (MILS: Multiple Independent Levels of Security) within a single encryption hardware device, while dynamically routing and controlling it according to context.

•                Core Challenge: Establishing core separation technologies (hardware isolation at the hypervisor level) and encryption policy-linked algorithms that verify identity and terminal health (device integrity) in real time to dynamically generate and tear down cryptographic tunnels.

•                Ultra-Low Latency In-Line Cryptographic Processing Engines and Side-Channel Attack (SCA) Resilience Defense

•                Overview: Technology that suppresses latency resulting from packet encryption and decryption to sub-microseconds (μs) while defending key information against physical hacking.

•                Core Challenge: Countermeasures against Differential Power Analysis (DPA) and Electromagnetic Analysis (EMA) that attempt to back-calculate cryptographic keys from minute variations in power consumption fluctuations, thermal radiation, and electromagnetic radiation (TEMPEST) during processing. Implementing dual-rail logic at the circuit level and optimizing noise insertion technologies.

•                HAIPE Overhead Optimization and Dynamic Tunneling in Intermittent, Low-Bandwidth Tactical Environments

•                Overview: Technology to solve the problem where packet bloat caused by HAIPE encapsulation (appending ESP headers or proprietary security payloads) strains narrow-bandwidth tactical wireless networks (such as MANETs) and satellite links.

•                Core Challenge: Secure header compression algorithms that reduce packet size to the absolute extreme (military advancement of ROHC), as well as adaptive encapsulation control protocols that dynamically vary cryptographic strength (key length or encryption mode) and encapsulation depth according to line throughput or burst packet loss rates.