MILCOM 2016 was a success. This year, the event was hosted in Baltimore, Maryland in the first three days of November. I had a lovely time listening to heated technical panels and strolling the show floor, learning about the amazing technology that assists in military efforts.
Here is my top 3 list of innovations presented at MILCOM 2016.
Create Your Own Network with The goTenna Mesh
This device enables you to create your own off-grid, long-range mesh network. The goTenna Mesh pairs with your smartphone, allowing you to communicate in areas where there isn’t any service available. Due to the goTenna Mesh’s usage of 1-watt UHF radio transmitters, the gadget doesn’t have to rely on nearby towers, routers or satellites.
Since the gadget is so light in weight, military personnel can carry multiple devices with ease. Those in the military are often situated in diverse locations around the world. This technology can ensure that there is always an accessible communication network at the ready.
(Image Credit: Kickstarter)
The Superb Vulnerability Detection of Team TECHx/Xandra
Brilliant minds from both GrammaTech and the University of Virginia Technology (UVA) competed in the first all-machine hacking tournament called the Cyber Grand Challenge, presented by DARPA. After 96 rounds of competition, GrammaTech and UVA placed second during the finale, displaying an incredible aptitude for locating software vulnerabilities.
The team competed with a system called Xandra, which was a “high-performance, scalable system that harnessed 2400 cores to power 210 high-performance fuzzing pods capable of 1.8 M fuzzing ops per second and feeding a dedicated bank of binary analyzers, patch generators, and binary rewriters to repair and protect binaries.”
The software showed incredible advancements in autonomous technology, providing diverse applications to strengthen military security.
(Image Credit: GrammaTech)
Secure Data Transfer with The Tactical Cross-Domain Solution (TACDS™)
The Tactical Cross-Domain Solution (TACDS) is designed to securely share information and data between specific security domains in aircrafts, dismounted soldier systems, and tactical vehicles.
The hardware of this gadget strengthens domain separation, so the process of transferring data from an area of low security to high security is never compromised. The internal components use encrypted storage of both rule sets and audit logs. This system is entirely autonomous and filters messages of various formats in a bi-directional manner.
The TACDS is certified by the National Security Administration (NSA) with proven capabilities in military exercises, operations, and demonstrations.
(Image Credit: Advatech Pacific)
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense