Mission-critical comms software partnership accord signed via AFRL program
NewsJune 24, 2024
ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) reports that a partnership under its Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase II (SBIR Phase II) program completed its $1.25 million contract to deliver innovative software to enhance transmission of mission-critical intelligence to the edge and support next-generation communcations technology.
Secure collaboration platform provider Mattermost teamed up with mission-critical platform company BrainGu to build a mission-critical ChatOps capability for the AFRL's Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) and ATAK operating systems. The announcement of the collaboration describes the Mattermost integration for TAK as improving distributed collaboration and enhancing warfighter efficiency, safety, and accuracy. The plug-in capability, says the announcement, also leverages the Mattermost open-source secure collaboration platform’s self-hosting capabilities, thereby enabling teams to retain full data ownership and meet communications security (COMSEC) requirements.
The Mattermost integration also creates an extension for TAK capabilities, laying the foundation for future capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled decision support tools.
Mattermost and BrainGu also worked closely with mobile mesh networking platform provider goTenna to develop and deliver transmission-layer integrations for TAK on goTenna’s mesh radios; the goTenna plugin also supports ATAK systems, enabling seamless connectivity with TAK servers and ensuring scalability and reliability in diverse operational environments.
The announcement notes that the new collaboration features mean that 350,000 civilian, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and partner TAK users can leverage the secure chat integration and low-bandwidth capabilities to effectively communicate mission-critical information between operational teams at the tactical edge and their forward operating bases (FOB) in near-real time.
