For the first time on the open market, allied NATO nations now have the ability to create their own cryptography keys and leverage high-assurance systems for national operations.
Many NATO member countries have scores of high-assurance radios in their inventories from coalition operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as an example. However, without NSA- or NATO-derived crypto keys, these devices lack the ability to harness the full protection these systems, including the L3Harris Technologies Falcon® IV family of products, can deliver.
The new L3Harris Key Management System (KMS) allows high-assurance product customers the autonomy to create their own digitally signed Suite B keys and leverage resilient waveforms for operations among their own troops.
“Our KMS has a high-quality random number generator developed using the most stringent guidelines from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to produce numbers for crypto keys that are impossible to predict,” said Chris Aebli, President, Mission Critical Communications, L3Harris. “The ability for countries to use advanced waveforms such as the ANW2® [Adaptive Networking Wideband Waveform] to protect their national borders and interests is extremely important when facing threats from enemies with sophisticated electronic warfare capabilities.”
Leveraging industry-standard Suite B AES algorithms, the L3Harris KMS packages crypto keys in an unsigned version for use with STaC-IS encrypted narrowband waveforms –such as the Very High Frequency/Ultra High Frequency Line of Sight (VULOS), Second-generation Anti-jam Tactical Ultra High Frequency Radio for NATO (SATURN) and High Performance waveforms – and a signed, Authenticated Pre Placed Key (APPK) for wideband waveforms including ANW2.
L3Harris is the first company to provide a system that creates Suite B NATO NINE standard key with its own trust anchor, according to Chris Pugh, Lead, Program Management, L3Harris. Digital signatures of APPKs are calculated based on a trust anchor, which is loaded into Suite B-capable L3Harris radios using the keys. APPKs unlock access to the wideband waveforms in a nation’s library.
Multiple nations have requested the ability to generate their own keys for several years, but the key formats to create such a system were only recently made available by NATO. The publication of the inline encryptor specifications allowed L3Harris to move forward with the development of the Key Management System, added Keith Ridgway, Scientist, Systems Engineering, L3Harris.
“Now, a NATO nation can create keys for an applicable waveform they want to use on our high-assurance radios,” said Ridgway. “The ability to make a Suite B key that is NATO NINE specific and validated with a trust anchor gives new life for our high-assurance products when our customers are working independently.”
