Focus sharpens on network efficiency, resiliency for Project Convergence

Raytheon demonstrates its REDPro ZTX cybersecurity system, as part of the company's Operational Zero Trust (OZT) cyber-resiliency platform, during Project Convergence 2022. (Raytheon)

Industry officials are sharpening their focus on developing platforms, software, and applications designed to increase efficiency and resiliency for current and future battlefield networks, with an eye towards showcasing those technological advances as part of the US Army's Project Convergence initiative.

Engineers from Raytheon Technologies' Intelligence and Space (I&S) directorate demonstrated its new Operational Zero Trust (OZT) cyber-resiliency platform during the army's inaugural Technology Gateway event, which is part of this year's iteration of the Project Convergence exercises.

Designed to improve cyber-network defences within the army's Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) by leveraging a combination of federated cyber-resiliency applications and automated cyber-security measures at the tactical level, a mature variant of OZT will provide “a multi-echelon, fully integrated capability” for army networks, said John DeSimone, president of Cybersecurity within the I&S directorate.

“Other benefits of the design include ... scalability, survivability, interoperability [in] a vendor-agnostic platform for integration” of OZT into legacy army systems and platforms, as well as the service's future systems, DeSimone said in a 20 October statement. “We designed our OZT capability to ensure a significantly improved cyber-defensive posture with optimised cyber-soldier task alignment,” he added.