Description: The greatest risk to cybersecurity on the battlefield is the threat to one’s own wireless communications posed by the adversary’s electronic warfare (EW). In addition to ensuring the integrity and security of transmitted information against eavesdropping through modern cryptographic methods, as well as the availability of communication links even under jamming conditions, protecting one’s own electromagnetic signature against the enemy’s location-determination methods is an often-overlooked but operationally critical component of communications security (COMSEC). Particularly in direct communication between two transmitting stations, there is a risk that one’s own transmission will be intercepted and decoded by enemy forces, or that one’s own location will be jammed or pinpointed using electronic warfare measures. Currently, military units in the field respond with technical measures (direct-sequence spread spectrum/frequency-hopping methods, burst transmissions, microwave links) or tactical measures (short transmission cycles, radio discipline, high mobility), which limits the use of wireless communication and its advantages in the field. On the other hand, the uninterrupted availability of the flow of information in the “Military Internet of Things” on the battlefield—for example, to generate highly precise and continuously updatable situational awareness—is playing an increasingly important role and requires the use of tactical data links with high data rates. This requires, for example, novel adaptive waveforms in the VHF band and above, which are currently being developed on the basis of Software-Defined Radio (SDR), for instance as part of the ESSOR project. Secure radio links can be realized through flexible modulation schemes, integrated encryption, and high resilience. At the same time, such waveforms also enable simultaneous communication and reconnaissance (Integrated Communication and Sensing, ISAC) and are therefore of particular interest for military applications.
As part of the InSuReCS research programme, an adaptively controllable transmission and reception technology based on meta-surfaces (e.g. Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS)) is to be developed that enables indirect communication and reconnaissance (active and passive) and thus further minimizes the risk of reconnaissance of one’s own position through a continuously adaptable transmission path. Indirect communication and reconnaissance is to be realized by an intermediate or relay station that is capable of forwarding incoming and highly focused transmissions between source and sink in a targeted manner. The transmission and reception technology to be developed can be used to supplement existing radio technology and expand its capabilities (e.g. with regard to bandwidth, frequency bands used, directional characteristics), but can also focus on future military-relevant radio applications.
The aim is to develop a transmission and reception technology that enables mobile field teams to conduct highly available, broadband, and secure communications and remote reconnaissance with high directivity. To this end, intelligent meta-interfaces—intended, for example, for use in the upcoming 6G mobile communications standard—are to be adapted for highly flexible deployment in conflict and crisis management scenarios. Prioritized requirements—such as largely platform-independent deployability, seamless integration into existing and future radio applications, and the continuous adaptation of the RIS configuration in a highly mobile operational scenario—represent key innovation goals of the research program.
Awarding body: Agentur für Innovation in der Cybersicherheit GmbH
Services and products: Research and development services and related consulting
Tender scope: EU member states, Switzerland, NATO member state or NATO partner, in particular AP4 (Asia-Pacific Partner – South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand)
Procurement Procedure: Pre-commercial Procurement Based on a Negotiated Procedure with Competitive Participation
Deadline for submitting applications to participate: October 28, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. via https://www.evergabe-online.de/tenderdetails.html?3&id=885697
Place of fulfillment: Halle (Saale), district-free city
Contact: only via www.evergabe-online.de
CPV code: 73000000