Emerging Technologies MT 2/2023 · 47 A series of tower- and pole-mounted antenna provide the secure, robust connectivity between MANET-enabled devices across the significant operational area. (Images courtesy Persistent Systems LLC) across three Air Force bases as part of the service’s Regional Operating Picture (ROP) programme, connecting communications systems for security forces across the ballistic missile silo fields with operations centres. The challenges in achieving this should not be under-estimated: maintaining the network across a geographic area of over 25,000 square miles, Persistent Systems will deploy its Wave Relay network, enabling service members equipped with MANET devices to seamlessly share voice, video, chat, sensor data and GPS data with multiple users, and connecting MANET-edge networks into a single, unified battlespace awareness network to provide robust, enhanced situational awareness. increased situational awareness. “US military bases can sprawl tens of thousands of square miles and, as it stands now, there is no dynamic, high-bandwidth way for headquarters staff to track and reliably remain in contact with the security personnel patrolling this vast area […] Should personnel run into problems in the field, they would not have effective Hiding the complexity of the multiple connectivity issues for the ROP network is key to the success of the design. We talk occasionally of “a technology whose time has come,” without necessarily reflecting closely on the implications of such a statement. However, in the case of Persistent Systems, LLC, based in New York City for the last fifteen years, the phrase resonates. MilTech has been tracking the innovative company’s activities for some while now, and has been consistently (dare one say ‘persistently’) impressed by the vision, the commitment and the intelligent solutions on display at every level of contact. Not the least impressive of the company’s solutions is the Wave Relay secure mobile ad-hoc networking (MANET) system, which transmits and receives voice, video, data and other constructs in the most challenging of environments. It has also created the Wave Relay Ecosystem, aimed at the unmanned systems development community. In March, the company announced that it has been awarded a US Air Force contract, valued at $75.5 million, to supply its Infrastructurebased Regional Operating Network (IRON) solution in what amounts to the biggest MANET offering ever considered. “Well – that’s what the Air Force told us, anyway,” Adrien Robenhymer, Persistent’s Vice President of Business Development for Air Force and Intelligence Community programmes, told MilTech recently in an exclusive interview. The contract supports Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) in rolling IRON out Final Frontiers – Emerging technologies observatory Tim Mahon Show Me the MANET…. Persistent Systems IRONs Out USAF Security Issues f Tim Mahon is Editor-in-Chief of Mönch Online.
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