The U.S. Army Office of the Chief Information Officer’s Enterprise Cloud Management Agency, or ECMA, has widened the audience reach of the Army Enterprise Wickr to enable more users to communicate in an end-to-end encrypted messaging system protected against adversarial communication threats. Requests for Wickr access can now be filed, with application acceptance prioritized based on mission needs, ECMA said Thursday.
FedRAMP IL5 High Certification
The agency manages the cloud-native messaging and collaboration platform in the cArmy landing zone. Under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, Army Wickr has an Impact Level 5 certification for handling controlled unclassified information. The platform has been piloted operational security in various Army programs, such as during training exercises that call for file sharing, video, chat, text and voice communications.
Army Wickr offers enterprise-level data storage and administrative controls for record-keeping requirements. Its users can manage data remotely and tap federation capabilities between networks.
The platform is also designed for seamless integration with the Android Tactical Assault Kit, a geospatial system and situational awareness tool for users to have a real-time common operating picture.
Army’s Future Plans for Wickr
The Army further plans to expand Wickr’s current use in on-demand translation, data storage and as broadcast bots. The future uses that ECMA is eying include integrating the platform with enterprise cross-domain system and cross-platform chat to make it interoperable with Army Vantage, the Army Intelligence Data Platform, mission support services and a custom chatbot with capabilities in generative artificial intelligence and large language models.
Amazon Web Services made the Wickr platform available on the Department of Defense Cloud One as a recall, alert and messaging, or RAM, service in August 2022. Wickr, which AWS acquired in 2021, initially secured a potential two-year contract in 2020 worth $35 million for the RAM platform’s adoption across the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force.
