Reticulate Micro and Himera, a Ukrainian defense tech startup, have entered into an exclusive distribution agreement. Reticulate will serve as the exclusive supplier of Himera’s battle-proven Electronic Warfare (EW)-protected tactical communication systems in the US and with key global government customers.
Himera was founded in Ukraine in 2022 after Russian’s full-scale invasion of the country. It has evolved quickly to meet the tactical radio needs of frontline soldiers, leapfrogging traditionally long procurement cycles to quickly develop and deploy its mission-critical equipment. Himera has fielded thousands of secure tactical radios to the Ukrainian defense forces, with the number continuing to grow.
“Our This battle-proven technology fills the gap between inexpensive radios that are unsecure, and those that are sophisticated with premium features and correlated prices,” said Joshua Cryer, president and CEO of Reticulate Micro. “We are not looking to compete with larger program of record tactical MESH radios, and in fact, believe the Himera technology is complementary to many of the radios that are currently fielded by US and coalition forces.”
Made completely from Commercial Off the Shelf Components (COTS), the Himera G1 Pro employs Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology, which has been proven resistant to Electronic Warfare (EW), according to published reports by the Ukraine Minister of Digital Transformation. The G1 Pro will incorporate both AES 256 and Post-Quantum symmetric encryption for added performance and security.
Misha Rudominski, co-founder of Himera, stated, “We are excited to work closely with Reticulate to get our products much faster to clients who need them most. Partnering with Reticulate Micro is an opportunity to aggregate a lot of knowledge and expertise from the global defense market and merge it with what we’ve learned in Ukraine to create even better products. We built our products with users in mind – to make them easy to use and to resolve specific issues met by those on the front lines of the battlefield.”
“The Himera G1 Pro has proven very effective on the battlefield in the Ukraine, supporting voice, GPS and data for a squad radio at a very low price,” noted Louis Sutherland, Reticulate Micro’s senior director of Business Development and the company’s lead on tactical markets. “There aren’t any suppliers out there that can provide this capability at this cost. On top of that, we are leapfrogging current radio technologies with Post-Quantum symmetric encryption.”
The radio functionality ensures both Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) and Low Probability of Detection (LPD). The FHSS technology allows the radio to switch frequencies, making it challenging to target.