Persistent Systems supports U.S. Navy’s Silent Swarm 24 Exercise in Michigan
September 24, 2024

Company’s Wave Relay® mobile ad hoc network (MANET) connects small, multi-domain unmanned systems to demonstrate early-stage Electromagnetic Warfare (EW) payloads in operationally relevant environment

Persistent Systems, LLC (“Persistent”), a leader in mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) technology, announced today that it provided network support to Silent Swarm 24, held July 15-26 at the National All-Domain Warfighting Center in Michigan.

Sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD), Integrated Sensing and Cyber, and led by the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NWSC Crane), the annual Silent Swarm exercise experiments with electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) capabilities on small, unmanned systems in an operationally relevant environment.

“Silent Swarm takes new, mostly commercial-off-the-shelf technology and pushes it to the very edge of its capabilities to develop new techniques, tactics, and procedures,” said Hunter Harding, Director of Business Development, Naval Aviation and Range Modernization at Persistent Systems. “This helps direct future R&D and procurements.”

In Silent Swarm 24, Persistent’s Wave Relay® MANET was the data fabric connecting the various experimental platforms and payloads for testing. Employed by multiple Programs of Record, the Wave Relay technology enables seamless, peer-to-peer transfer of voice, video, text, GPS, and sensor data to support hundreds of nodes.

“Our participation in Silent Swam proved our ability to integrate our Wave Relay® MANET into any platform. We took unmanned systems that had never been integrated together and quickly networked them to perform swarm operations,” Harding said. “This demonstrates a critical capability for unmanned system operators on the battlefield, who just want to grab a new platform and have it running collaboratively with other manned and unmanned systems in no time.”

Silent Swarm is a continuation of Persistent’s naval efforts. Earlier in July, the company announced that the Navy Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific awarded it a $1.3 million contract to supply its handheld MPU5 MANET devices and compatible Integrated Sector Antennas for littoral warfare operations. In February, the same Navy center awarded Persistent a $3.6 million contract to provide MPU5s for integration with various sensors.

“With each new contract and exercise, we are deepening our relationship with the Navy,” Harding said.

About Persistent Systems, LLC

Headquartered in New York City since 2007, Persistent Systems, LLC is a global communications technology company that develops and manufactures a patented and secure Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET) system: Wave Relay®. Wave Relay® transmits and receives data, video, voice, and other applications under the most difficult conditions. Their suite of products is utilized in Commercial, Military, Government, Industrial, Robotics, and Unmanned Systems markets.

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