Innoflight has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract from Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) to develop a prototype Layer 2 Space Node Processor (L2SNP) hardware platform to help fill the U.S. Space Force’s mission need to establish resiliency of communication networks in space.

Innoflight’s prototype complements its mature ECU-400 space mesh encryptor already delivered for a demo flight later this year. The L2SNP prototype will provide high assurance authentication and session security while supporting high efficiency in-space mesh routing. In addition, the platform will offer modern Quality of Service (QoS), virtual private networks, and autonomous link management for probable implementation by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Space Development Agency (SDA), Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and SMC.

Ultimately, mission managers will have fine-toothed control over end-user capability with on-orbit reconfiguration as needed. Over the 18-month period of performance, Innoflight’s solution will be based on its Compact Flight Computer (CFC), the CFC-400X. The CFC-400X uses a hybrid design that leverages Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components for high performance in combination with radiation supervisors to implement Innoflight’s extensive suite of radiation mitigation techniques.

Lt. Gen. John F. Thompson, Commander, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, and Program Executive Officer for space, the event’s host, stated that Air Force Space Pitch Day was a two-day event hosted in November of last year by the Air Force to demonstrate the service’s willingness and ability to work with non-traditional startups and small businesses. “We have to ‘flip the script’ on how we buy things in order to remain competitive with adversaries and that’s what Air Force Space Pitch Day accomplishes.

Jeff Janicik, Innoflight CEO and President, stated the company is proud to have the opportunity to provide revolutionary space based mesh connectivity that can be applied to both RF (Radio Frequency) and FSO (Free Space Optics) transceiver technology. The lack of secure space networks is a pervasive gap for the Department of Defense and is preventing the community from managing clusters and constellations from several to hundreds of spacecraft. As an industry leader in the space cyber, Innoflight is thrilled and ready to help fill the gap.