Aalyria, a Google spinoff focused on connectivity, has secured a new contract from the Office of Naval Research and Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to develop over-the-horizon connectivity for the Navy’s sea, air, and land assets. The initial contract award is worth $7 million and is part of the Navy’s Secure Optical Aerial Relay (SOAR) project, which aims to provide a low latency, high bandwidth free space optical communication capability for warfighting scenarios.
Aalyria plans to utilize its Tightbeam light free space optics technology for the program. The company will deliver Tightbeam terminals to the Navy for installation on naval aircraft and other platforms. According to Aalyria, Tightbeam can achieve speeds starting at 100 Gbps over hundreds of kilometers of atmosphere.
Nathan Wolfe, CTO of Aalyria Technologies, expressed excitement about the capabilities of Tightbeam. He stated that the technology can deliver faster speeds, cover greater distances, and overcome more challenging conditions than what people typically believe is possible. Aalyria is eager to leverage Tightbeam’s unique and cutting-edge technology to advance critical communications capabilities for the Navy.
Aalyria has recently emerged from stealth and has already secured several government and commercial contracts. These include partnerships with the Defense Innovation Unit, Rivada Space Networks, Anduril, and Leidos.
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