When satellites fall from the sky DARPA's new ocean network will still work

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By Matthew Griffin Security and Privacy 21st January 2017

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

With China and Russia investing more money in anti-satellite weapons DARPA wants to create a new network that can’t be interrupted if their birds go black.

It’s never a great time when you lose contact with your $600 billion military machine – particularly if it’s because your satellites have been destroyed, or your communications systems jammed. So, in an age where both China and Russia are accelerating the development of new anti-satellite warfare and new artificial intelligence (AI) electronic jamming systems America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has decided that it wants to provide the American armed forces with as many communications contingencies as possible.

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As the name suggests DARPA’s latest network, dubbed the Tactical Undersea Network Architecture (TUNA), is being set up in the open ocean and it’s a collection of “node” buoys, deployed from ships or planes, that are tethered together by fiber optic cables to create a radio frequency (RF) data network.

The fiber cables that connect the buoys together are thin but they’re being designed to withstand at least 30 days at sea which the US hopes should give it enough time to restore normal communications. Asides from the challenging conditions powering the network presents another problem, and the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Lab have created a concept buoy that draws energy from the constant ebb and flow of the ocean. The TUNA program has been in DARPA’s pipeline for the past few years, and with the first phase now complete, the next step is to build a fully working system and test it at sea.

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DARPA’s seafaring solution compliments two other communications programs. One called “Dynamic Network Adaptation for Mission Optimization” (DyNAMO) whose goal is to develop a system that allows all different types of equipment found in different types of aircraft to talk to each other, creating something akin to a peer-to-peer communications network in the sky, and another project called “A Mechanically Based Antenna” (AMEBA) that hopes to extend the internet, using low frequency RF into the deepest parts of the oceans and through solid rock into the world’s deepest mines.

Stay tuned.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.