Sonardyne has published an insightful article detailing its collaboration with the UK Ministry of Defense’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) to establish a new benchmark for secure waveforms in underwater communication systems. This innovative standard aims to facilitate interoperability among allied navies, notably in the use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and other unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).
The modern battlefield is increasingly intricate, characterized by multiple domains and diverse threats that often extend beyond conventional armed conflict. The underwater domain, in particular, presents unique challenges that are crucial for the protection of vital national infrastructure and the security of maritime trade. Operating in this surroundings—whether for intelligence,surveillance,reconnaissance,mine detection,or command and control—poses meaningful difficulties. The threats in this arena are evolving rapidly, encompassing advancements in anti-submarine warfare and the emergence of asymmetric actors, both manned and unmanned.
Coordinating efforts among various platforms, domains, and nations in the underwater environment is a formidable task. Achieving interoperability is essential, necessitating that assets from different domains and countries can communicate effectively. This underscores the urgent need for a new standard in underwater communication.
Sonardyne is spearheading a technical initiative to create a secure,high-integrity waveform for acoustic communications,responding to a requirement set forth by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). Funded by the UK Ministry of Defence and led by Thales UK, this project aims to develop Phorcys, an open standard for secure acoustic communications that will enhance collaboration and interoperability among navies, ensuring secure transmissions. Alexander Hamilton, Principal Communications Scientist at Dstl, and Ioseba Tena, Head of Defence at Sonardyne, elaborated on the implications of this development.
Enhancing Anti-Submarine Operations
“Interoperability is a significant challenge we face today,” Hamilton states. “We require a secure,high-performance protocol that can be universally adopted. Secure and interoperable communications are vital for effective command, control, and communication, particularly in mine countermeasures and anti-submarine operations.”
“Underwater communication is a crucial enabler; as a notable example, it plays a key role in the Future Commando Force’s advanced autonomous capabilities. Collaborative efforts are essential to achieve interoperability between the UK and its allies, as well as to integrate underwater assets across multiple domains into a broader mission network. To facilitate this, we must ensure that the underwater battlespace is equipped with secure and resilient communication systems,” he adds.
tena notes, “We already have existing open standards, such as JANUS, which was the first interoperable protocol. Though, the critical missing element in JANUS and similar standards has been security.”
Ensuring Secure and Resilient Underwater Communications
Hamilton clarifies, “Indeed, the distinction lies in having a secure and dependable protocol stack.While resilience pertains to integrity and availability,it does not inherently guarantee confidentiality.”
“Traditional acoustic communication systems in the commercial sector are resilient and high-performing, but while they allow for interoperability, they often lead to vendor lock-in and lack inherent security. Although existing protocol stacks can incorporate security features—like AES-256 encryption applied to JANUS—this adds complexity and is not a secure-by-design solution. Our goal is to establish high-performance communications that facilitate rapid details transfer across the underwater domain while ensuring security.”
Introducing Phorcys
“Phorcys represents the creation of a high-performance protocol stack that will be available as an unclassified standard,” Hamilton explains.“This secure-by-design approach utilizes cryptographic keys rather than relying on obscurity for security. We are collaborating with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to ensure that these communication systems meet government security standards.Adhering to this standard will enable multi-domain integration across various assets and facilitate interoperability among different nations and platforms. By employing cryptographic keying, access to the network is restricted, ensuring the confidentiality of communications.”
Tena adds, “Cryptographic keys will also support varying levels of interoperability. Such as, a UK platform using UK codes will only communicate securely with another UK platform using the same codes. Additionally, a UK platform could utilize NATO codes for secure communication with NATO platforms.”
“The aim is to keep the standard unclassified; access to information will be determined by the key. This allows for a zero code that is accessible to all,” Hamilton elaborates.
Situational Awareness: Distinguishing Allies from Adversaries
“Looking ahead, a crucial aspect of Phorcys will be enhancing situational awareness among underwater assets, enabling the identification of kind versus opposed entities.In future operations, particularly in congested waterways, it will be vital to distinguish between an autonomous vehicle returning to its mothership and an incoming autonomous torpedo,” he notes.
As part of the Phorcys initiative, Sonardyne experts are partnering with Newcastle University to develop a waveform capable of functioning across various frequency bands, catering to diverse environments from confined spaces to expansive open waters.
“Phorcys is promising because it will facilitate interoperability across different platforms throughout the underwater domain, operating across multiple frequency bands,” hamilton states. “For extended range, lower frequencies may be employed, while operations involving small UUVs might utilize frequency bands between 20 to 28 kHz. This capability allows for more precise control of uuvs, enhances data retrieval, and ensures reliable command and control across assets, enabling swift data transfer.As a standard, it will also reduce development costs and accelerate deployment timelines,” he adds.
Advancing Open and Interoperable Standards
What are Sonardyne’s future plans for this technology? “Sonardyne aims to implement this standard and collaborate with third parties to promote its adoption,” Tena states. Upon project completion, the goal is to continue providing customers with commercial-off-the-shelf solutions built on our industry-leading Wideband digital signal expertise, alongside the chance to utilize secure Phorcys waveforms on the same hardware platforms.
“We seek vendor collaboration rather than vendor lock-in. This will streamline procurement, as systems compliant with the standard can be integrated, allowing for competition among companies,” Hamilton explains.“This approach opens up new market opportunities and fosters competition in hardware and processing, optimizing size, weight, and power for small UUVs.”
“Moreover,it will stimulate innovation at higher levels of the protocol stack,such as swarm autonomy behaviors. Developers can shift their focus from communication to application and platform integration, layer processing, autonomy, and user interface design within the network,” he continues.
“Since the protocol will be unclassified, the advancements we are making will also be accessible to other industries. As an example, the oil and gas sector could leverage this technology for their underwater robotics operations, ensuring the security of their data,” he concludes.
