DARPA asks three more companies to improve security for "weird" covert intelligence communications networks

Questions and answers:

• What is DARPA’s PWND2 program? It aims to improve the deployment and detection of covert, hard-to-detect “weird networks” used for secure military and intelligence communications.
• Which companies recently won contracts for PWND2? Two Six Labs; RTX BBN Technologies; Systems & Technology Research; Stealth Software Technologies; and SRI International.
• What makes a “weird network” different from a normal network? Weird networks are unconventional, stealthy, and deniable communication systems that avoid detection by blending into civilian signals, using hidden data channels, and resisting disruption from electronic warfare.

ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers are hiring three more technology companies to improve the security and capabilities of covert hidden communications networks for military and intelligence applications.

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., announced contracts on 13 Aug. 2025 to Two Six Labs LLC in Arlington Va.; RTX Corp. BBN Technologies in Cambridge Mass.; and Systems & Technology Research in Woburn Mass., for the Provably Weird Network Deployment and Detection (PWND2) program.

These three companies join Stealth Software Technologies Inc. in Los Angeles, and SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif. on the PWND2 program, which won contracts in late July.

Hidden communication systems, often referred to as covert channels, transmit information secretly without detection for stealth and privacy beyond simple encryption. They are designed to conceal that any communication is occurring.

Slow and uncertain

The current approach is slow and uncertain, and provides only temporary advantages, researchers say. Furthermore, hidden communications networks are expensive to test and validate. Instead, PWND2 is asking the PWND2 contractors to model weird networks to improve how to deploy and detect hidden networks in the real world.

Two Six Labs won a $7.2 million PWND2 contract; RTX BBN won a $9.4 million contract; Systems & Technology Research won a $5.2 million contract; Stealth Software won a $3.8 million contract; and SRI won a $3.6 million contract.

PWND2 will develop models and tools to improve the deployment and detection of hidden communication networks -- also known as weird networks -- for military and intelligence use.

Tell me more about weird networks ...

• Weird networks are unconventional, covert, and hard-to-detect communications networks designed to be deniable, stealthy, unpredictable, and resilient. They are difficult to prove they even exist; avoid detection even by sophisticated electronic surveillance; avoid standard patterns; and survive or adapt to disruption, electronic warfare (EW) jamming, or active electronic attack. A weird network doesn't look or act like a normal network, and may use unusual protocols, hidden data channels, low-probability-of-intercept radio signals, or piggyback on civilian communications to avoid detection and tracking.

Hidden communication systems are essential to national security, yet their design approaches are inadequate today, with no guarantees that users will remain hidden, DARPA researchers say.

The project asks the PWND2 contractors to test how software-defined networking pairs with formal methods to provide provable privacy and performance guarantees for hidden communication systems at meaningful scale.

A weird network enables emergent unintended communications outside the original specification of a network, and can represent any form of hidden or confusing communications -- including an application running over the weird network; the actual weird network; the underlying traditional network that the weird network emerged from; and the capabilities of the adversary.

Language and analysis tools

the PWND2 contractors experts will create a new domain-specific language and analysis tools to verify weird network performance, scalability, security, and privacy.

The companies will develop a domain-specific language able to model emergent hidden communications; and develop analysis tools to examine hidden communications systems.

For more information contact Two Six Labs online at https://twosixtech.com/; RTX BBN at www.rtx.com/who-we-are/we-are-rtx/transformative-technologies/bbn; Systems & Technology Research at https://str.us/; Stealth Software Technologies at www.stealthsoftwareinc.com, SRI International at www.sri.com, or DARPA at www.darpa.mil/research/programs/provably-weird-network.