Airmen in the field rely on secured communications to

accomplish their missions without enemy knowledge of their plans. Historically, the means by which the military encrypts its communications has been cumbersome and subject to interception, like when allies successfully stole a Nazi encryption device, called an enigma machine, during World War II.
"We think it [Mini Crypto chip] will really help forward-deployed warfighters secure sensors, or , in areas where risk of interception is high, and still protect sensitive data, without burdening folks on the front lines with extra equipment or steps to safeguard the encryption device," said Heidi Beason, Mini Crypto program manager at the AF Life Cycle Management Center, Cryptologic and Cyber System Division, Joint Base-San Antonio, Texas.
Mini Crypto is a self-contained encryption engine that generates its own session based "key." Designed to be small and lightweight, it is about the size of a cracker. Its power requirement is roughly the same as a hearing aid, at 400 milliwatts, meaning it can be installed on equipment carried by one-person parties operating as scouts and forward air controllers.
Beason talked about the work that went into getting to this point.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-mini-crypto-chip-self-contained-encryption.html#jCp