August 11-12, 2026
SAN DIEGO — Nearly 120 defense and intelligence leaders gathered at Naval Base Point Loma on Aug. 11-12 to coordinate the future of secure military communications during the Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC) and National Security Agency (NSA) biannual collaboration meeting.
Hosted by the Waveform Communication Security Sub-Working Group (WCS SWG), the two-day event focused on standardizing cryptographic modernization, post-quantum resiliency, and transmission security (TRANSEC) across the Department of War (DoW). The collaboration brought together military departments, service program offices, and federally funded research and development centers to align security baselines, overcome interoperability gaps, and deliver robust capabilities directly to the tactical edge.
Aligning Crypto Modernization and Joint Coordination
The event commenced with a series of briefings outlining structural and operational changes within secure communications portfolios. NSA cryptographic leadership briefed attendees on organizational alignments designed to establish streamlined scoping and support for tactical radio and aircraft cryptographic modernization across the military departments.
Under the updated framework, the NSA is driving joint service coordination to streamline scoping and certification processes. This unified effort aims to establish robust, quantum-resistant parameters across national security systems in accordance with federal modernization deadlines.
Transitioning to Post-Quantum Cryptography
A major focal point of the technical presentations was the transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to defend against future quantum computing threats. Experts from the research community briefed progress on the Post-Quantum Mutual Authentication for Key Exchange (PQuAKE) framework, a candidate protocol submitted to international standards bodies.
The candidate protocol replaces heavy online digital signatures with a compact, implicit Key Encapsulation Mechanism (KEM) authentication process. Quantitative performance analyses presented at the meeting showed that the protocol demonstrated significant reductions in CPU workload and wire bytes compared to traditional signature-based methods. This compact-authentication approach provides a deterministic latency profile, removing performance variances that complicate network planning. This advance represents a major breakthrough for bandwidth-constrained tactical radio links, satellite networks, and memory-constrained tactical devices.
Launching High Assurance Crypto Integration
Addressing another critical milestone, leadership from the Interoperability & Integration Sub-Working Group (I2SWG) announced the official kickoff of the High Assurance Cryptographic Integration Activity (HACIA).
Established as a government-led sub-effort under the Communications Technology and Waveform Working Group (CTWWG), HACIA provides a standardized, collaborative forum for service program offices and the NSA to co-design and certify open-architecture cryptographic solutions. By standardizing high-assurance profiles down to the hardware module level, HACIA aims to mitigate duplicate engineering costs, eliminate proprietary vendor lock, and ease mounting certification workloads.
DoW Service and Acquisition Roadmaps
Acquisition leaders and program managers from across the military services presented updates on their respective software and hardware modernization pathways:
Enhancing TRANSEC Policy and Electronic Warfare Emulation
The afternoon sessions shifted focus toward transmission security (TRANSEC) compliance and threat emulation capabilities. Representatives from the NSA TRANSEC Office led a walkthrough of updated System TRANSEC Plan (STP) templates. Mandated by joint cryptographic policies, the STP serves as a living lifecycle document capturing TRANSEC risks and mitigations before systems achieve initial operational capability.
Complementing the policy briefings, developers presented updates on threat emulation capabilities. Threat emulation test assets are integrated with threat databases and simulators to evaluate waveform resiliency. This approach allows test laboratories to simulate realistic, contested electronic attack environments to evaluate the resiliency of blue-force waveforms.
Standardizing Cyber Resiliency and Digital Collaboration
The JTNC concluded the technical sessions by presenting the progress of the Resiliency Assessment, Analysis, Testing, and Evaluation (RAATE) Framework. Volume 6 of the RAATE framework introduces standardized methodologies to test and evaluate a radio's Reduced Probability of Cyber Exploitation (RPCE). By establishing a structured testing continuum spanning initial analysis, empirical testing, and operational evaluation, the JTNC provides a repeatable blueprint to evaluate and enhance software-defined radio resilience before systems are fielded.
Supporting this vast ecosystem is the secure Joint Communications Marketplace (JCM) cloud platform, which now hosts thousands of active users across multiple defense stakeholder communities. Upcoming enhancements include integrated database interfaces, autonomous assistants, and expanded secure network capabilities.
The collaboration concluded with an action item review and a commitment to establish tailored security baselines early in the system acquisition lifecycle, ensuring that the next generation of military communication networks is built secure by design.
A Unified Front: Supporting the JTNC Lines of Effort
The biannual collaboration meeting serves as more than an information-sharing forum; it acts as a critical engine driving the Department of War's joint modernization goals. By gathering leaders from the intelligence, acquisition, and engineering communities, this event directly advances the JTNC's four core Lines of Effort (LOEs), shaping the future of secure, interoperable tactical communications.
First, the collaboration is fundamental to LOE 1: Driving the Joint Network Baseline. Standardizing high-assurance profiles, establishing shared post-quantum metrics, and refining TRANSEC plan templates ensure that all joint services operate from a single, secure, and coordinated foundation. By codifying these common cryptographic baselines, the JTNC and NSA eliminate the fragmented system designs that historically hindered multi-service operations.
Second, the partnership directly secures LOE 2: Assuring the Warfighter's Connection. In an era where adversaries deploy sophisticated electronic jamming and cyber exploitation tactics, joint forces must have absolute confidence in their communications. The integration of advanced waveforms alongside threat emulation test assets ensures that military hardware is validated under highly realistic, contested environments prior to deployment.
Third, the technical breakthroughs highlighted during this collaboration are pivotal to LOE 3: Accelerating Capability to the Tactical Edge. Implementing lightweight protocols that slash cryptographic overhead allows the services to rapidly push cutting-edge post-quantum defenses to hardware-constrained radios and legacy terminals. This drastically reduces the time it takes to move security enhancements from theory into the hands of deployed operators.
Finally, the event serves as a catalyst for LOE 4: Empowering the Lead Service Enterprise. Rather than leaving individual services to independently navigate mounting certification backlogs and proprietary vendor locks, joint initiatives like HACIA, the RAATE cyber framework, and the JCM secure database provide the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force with standardized, pre-vetted toolkits. This cooperative approach empowers each branch to execute its specific program-of-record updates efficiently, reducing redundant engineering workloads and accelerating the delivery of secure communication systems to the joint force.
About the Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC)On behalf of the Joint Warfighters, the Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC) serves as the Department of War's technical advisor for secure, interoperable, resilient, and capable military communications systems aligned to open interfaces. The JTNC facilitates the delivery of intelligent and adaptive radio technologies by conducting rigorous technical analysis, mitigating integration risks, and resolving interoperability issues to accelerate the acquisition of transport, network, and data capabilities for Service Components, Joint forces, and Coalition partners.
| Date Taken: | 08.17.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 08.20.2026 12:10 |
| Story ID: | 572579 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, JTNC NSA WCSSWG Biannual Collaboration, by Keypher Strombeck, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
