Project Director, Communications Security is moving in the direction of fielding a brand new handheld device so that it will be used to deliver electronic keys to secure the Army’s phone, radio, computer and satellite networks.
The Next Generation Load Device-Small, or NGLD-Small, comes with a brand new digital display at the front and is smaller than previous devices used for encryption, but still gives an analogous security protection as larger devices. It replaces older models that were not ready to handle the Army’s encryption key delivery requirements.
“The NGLD are a family of devices, with a small, medium and massive version,” said Aaron Clayton, the Tier 3 Fill Devices project leader at Project Director, Communications Security, or PD COMSEC, that is assigned to the military Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, or PEO C3T. “Those don’t relate to their physical size but their capabilities. The NGLD-Small chiefly is concentrated to exchange a legacy device that Soldiers currently use. The legacy device doesn’t have the safety features that we might desire to see today just like the NGLD-Small may give.”
The NGLD devices are used to receive, store, manage and export electronic keys which are used for cryptography. The keys are loaded into communications devices corresponding to radios and satellite terminals to secure networks.
When building or procuring a brand new device akin to an NGLD-Small, PD COMSEC must account for plenty factors due to secure information involved.
“These devices are certified by the National Security Agency (NSA) a good way to handle and store electronic keys classified as much as the head Secret level,” Clayton said. “We work very closely with the NSA to ensure what we’re doing is in sync with their security requirements.”
PD COMSEC also has to make certain the devices can withstand the damage wear them by Soldiers during a deployment. Making sure that the devices can meet the vigorous environmental requirements, the PD COMSEC team took several samples of potential NGLD-Small devices to the Network Integration Evaluation, or NIE, at Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands Missile Range, N.M., where troops conduct realistic mission threads with the intention to evaluate communications equipment in an operational environment.
“We took approximately 10 of every device with us and so they all came back with the paint worn off and all scratched up, but they still worked,” Clayton said.
At first, Soldiers appeared reluctant to take advantage of the brand new device over the bigger, yet more familiar, Simple Key Loader, or SKL, that they had used previously. Those devices were ready to provide the protection required, but were larger, and now and again more cumbersome than the NGLD-Small.
“We had trainers are available with the several devices and teach the warriors how you can use them,” said Stan Scofield, PD COMSEC special projects officer for the PEO C3T Technical Management Division. “It didn’t take very long to get them up and running at the new devices. When they learned find out how to use them and got to work out a number of the upgrades, they didn’t are looking to give them back.”
While the warriors were pleased with the hot devices, there’s still potential for improvement that PD COMSEC will recommend to manufacturers. These improvements will be sure Soldiers have every advantage possible while securing military networks in hostile environments.
“We got plenty of feedback and located some shortcomings inside the new devices,” Clayton said. “We’re making suggestions for enhancements to the device so that they will meet Army requirements. We wish to make certain they are able to completely load, interface and configure the hot Army software defined radios.”
Clayton said he believed the brand new devices might be field ready by the tip of the year.
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