General Dynamics teams with Klas Telecom, DTech Labs on expeditionary networks

Data and network encryption programme engineers at General Dynamics are teaming up with Klas Telecom and DTech Labs in support of their expeditionary networking platforms, partnerships that potentially could result in a new satellite communication (satcom) suite for the US Army’s Expeditionary Signals Battalion-Enhanced (ESB-E) units.

Beginning in May 2019, General Dynamics collaborated with Cubic Mission Solutions‘ DTECH Labs to team up its TACLANE-Nano 175N data encryptor with the family of DTECH M3X network module stacks, enabling the man-packable module stack to receive and transmit data at the top secret/sensitive compartmented information (TS/SCI) level. The TACLANE-Nano is a smaller, ruggedised variant of the TACLANE-ES10, and supports asymmetric data transfers at up to 200 megabits per second (Mb/s) of aggregate throughput.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) certified the TACLANE-Nano for transmission of Type 1 TS/SCI data and communications in October 2019. The system was also High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor (HAIPE) v.4.2.5 compliant, while also including selective adoption of open architecture standards. The TACLANE-Nano’s predecessor, the TACLANE-Micro 175D, “is probably the most widely used network encryptor in the US”, with 125,000 units currently fielded with US armed forces, said Dave King, chief technical officer for Cyber at General Dynamics Mission Systems. “The 175D [variant] ... is 200 [Mb/s] but it is a quarter of its size,” he said of the TACLANE-Nano’s data transmission capabilities, given its size, weight, and power requirements.