Launched in April, Crumbcatcher is Northeast Information Discovery’s first SIGINT product.
The company has teamed up with COMINT Consulting to provide “access to over four hundred demodulators and decoders,” it told Armada. These tools supplement Crumbcatcher’s automated signal characterisation and classification attributes. Northeast Information Discovery (NEID) says this “simplifies the use of the system.” This means “even a novice can start decoding signals of interest, without any a prior knowledge of the signal environment.”
Performance
Crumbcatcher employs a web browser interface. Users can operate the system from a computer or laptop. This can be done remotely “from any distance covered by their network.” The product has an open architecture and is “radio frequency front end agnostic.” Specific customer front ends can be integrated with ease, says the company: “We like to think of Crumbcatcher as less of a discrete, rigid system and more as a platform or framework, that allows for rapid integration of best-of-breed signals intelligence and electronic warfare technologies.” Likewise, NEID said that Crumbcatcher’s software is scalable and deployable on a range of platforms.
Interest
While Crumbcatcher is NEID’s first product, the firm “has provided research, development and engineering services to US government customers” in the signals intelligence, electronic warfare and cyber domains. NEID says Crumbcatcher is starting to garner interest since the product launch. Attention has been forthcoming from “domestic and international customers.” The firm has also been selected by several US government agencies to demonstrate Crumbcatcher’s acumen.
Evolution
Over the long term, NEID envisages several evolutions for Crumbcatcher. These include “the addition of transmit capabilities to support EW and cyber operations,” along with direction finding and geolocation improvements. Signal classification and characterisation will be continually refined as will metadata processing, exploitation, and visualisation.
by Dr. Thomas Withington
