DARPA has awarded a $19.3 million US contract to Peraton Labs for the Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) project. The MINC program will create a self-healing web-like network that will connect sensors and weapons working in contested environments in a secure manner.
Currently, the military is using a manual static configuration of separate tactical networks and limited internetworking capabilities to connect sensors to shooters. As part of the mosaic warfare directive, MINC will move towards autonomous approaches where applications and networks adapt to changing military conditions. DARPA has described MINC as a capstone project to facilitate implementation of the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept for the Department of Defense.
As DARPA stated, “MINC will culminate this paradigm shift from static, manual configuration of closed, rigid architectures by moving towards autonomous, mission-driven approaches where applications and networks adapt with mission dynamics and operator feedback.”
Peraton Labs is contracted to develop the network and communications systems algorithms and software to configure and control available resources opportunistically. It will address three key challenges found in extreme networking environments: the lack of network interoperability across heterogeneous communications systems at scale; insufficient network capacity to support missions; and the inability to reconfigure networks autonomously to align with military missions.
Peraton Labs will help develop on-demand connectivity between sensor-to-shooter networks by focusing on three key capabilities: developing an always-on network overlay to access available networking and communications resources and control parameters; using a cross-network approach for managing network configuration; and creating ways to determine the best information flows for kill web services.