Viasat, a global leader in satellite communications, announced it was selected by the U.S. Government to build a next-generation Ethernet Data Encryptor (EDE) solution as part of a sole-source multi-million dollar Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) award.
Under this award, Viasat will design and develop this new high-assurance (formerly Type 1), high-speed EDE to meet the most stringent government security standards for protecting classified data up to Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) levels.
Viasat has a long history of developing and delivering National Security Agency (NSA) certified encryption solutions to help protect sensitive government data – from ground-to-space, ship-to-shore, and the tactical edge-to-cloud data centers. Viasat received this IDIQ award during the first half of its 2025 fiscal year.
Through this multi-year IDIQ contract, Viasat’s government encryption team under its Defense and Advanced Technologies segment will develop, certify, and sustain this next-generation high-assurance encryptor to meet evolving government security specifications, cloud communications requirements, and security threats. Viasat’s first-generation KG-142 high-assurance, high-speed EDE has been protecting cloud and transport data networks since 2017. This next-generation EDE will expand on the ground-breaking KG-142 capabilities, addressing demand for increased network traffic bandwidth, lower power requirements, and advanced device management.
These capabilities are critical as Department of Defense networks increasingly shift to utilize cloud service providers and support a Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability. The demand for high-assurance encryption to protect the government data in and between those cloud data centers and core transport networks is rapidly growing.
Viasat’s new high-speed, high-assurance EDE will provide 16 times more bandwidth and an estimated 60% power savings compared to its current generation of high-speed EDE products, while maintaining the same footprint. The next-generation EDE is expected to provide the most encryption bandwidth density (3.2Tbps aggregate per standard rack unit) of any available high-assurance EDE, designed to deliver enough data encryption processing for over 100,000 simultaneous 4K video streams to be encrypted and decrypted every minute.
The next-generation EDE will use Viasat’s PSIAM™ technology architecture, which is the foundation of Viasat’s vast portfolio of high-assurance encryptor products that have been trusted for 20 years to secure the most sensitive government data. Viasat’s PSIAM™ technology architecture uses intelligent, proven, 100% reprogrammable protection capable of evolving with customer needs through software upgrades instead of costly hardware replacements.
Visit Viasat’s website to learn more about our portfolio of flexible, scalable and highly secure cloud and enterprise encryption solutions.
David Schmolke, Vice President of Viasat Mission Connections and Cybersecurity
This award highlights Viasat’s proven heritage and innovative approach towards meeting the future demands of security, space, power, and bandwidth requirements of government cloud data centers. We’re proud to be trusted to continue our work with the government to meet the protection and high-speed requirements warfighters need. Our next-generation EDE is designed to meet customers’ increased AI-driven demands for bandwidth while providing the flexibility to operate their data centers with cutting edge automation and responsiveness
