SAN DIEGO, CA, May 12, 2020 – Innoflight is pleased to announce its award of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract from Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) during last November’s Space Pitch Day in San Francisco. Under the award, Innoflight is developing 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.
Air Force Space Pitch Day was a two-day event hosted 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 our adversaries and that’s what Air Force Space Pitch Day does,” said 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.
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 utilizes 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.
“Innoflight 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,” said Jeff Janicik, Innoflight CEO and President. “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, we are thrilled and ready to help fill the gap.”
About Innoflight
Innoflight is a veteran-owned small business founded in 2004. Innoflight offers state-of-the-art software-defined compact/ground radios, cryptographic and cyber secure systems and processing, networking and data storage avionics. Our core competency is secure Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) systems designed through innovative implementation of modern Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology. The result is modular, high performance, yet low Size Weight and Power (SWaP) systems at competitive prices. Our products are qualified through an Innoflight rigorous process that includes parts reliability analysis and testing, system-level fault tolerance, and radiation risk mitigation. Our customers include the U.S. government, prime aerospace contractors and commercial space developers. To learn more about Innoflight, please visit the company’s website at www.innoflight.com.
Media Contact
Vincent Gagnon, Director, Business Development, +1-858-332-0944, vgagnon@innoflight.com
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