Award supports secure, AI-orchestrated coalition collaboration planned for Project Convergence Capstone 6 evaluation and aligned with Cognitive Interoperability Domain research.

RESTON, Va., July 7, 2026 — Intelligent Waves, a mission-focused technology integrator serving the U.S. Government, today announced it has received an AFWERX Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award under Topic No. AFX255-PCSO1 to advance EPCE+, short for Ephemeral Partner Collaboration Environment-Plus.

EPCE+ helps U.S. and coalition mission partners rapidly establish secure, temporary collaboration environments for distributed and contested operations. The AI-orchestrated, zero-trust capability supports information exchange, activity coordination, and the preservation of operational context without leaving persistent infrastructure or sensitive data on end-user devices.

Intelligent Waves plans to evaluate EPCE+ during Project Convergence Capstone 6 Operations in the Information Environment experimentation activities. The effort also supports Intelligent Waves’ Cognitive Interoperability Domain (CID) research under the HAF A5/7 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.

“This award reinforces the operational need for secure collaboration that can move at mission speed,” said Tony Crescenzo, CEO of Intelligent Waves. “EPCE+ is designed for environments where trust, speed, resilience, and disciplined access control are not optional. Our goal is to help mission partners establish secure collaboration quickly, reduce risk, and preserve decision advantage when conditions are degraded, contested, or uncertain.”

During Phase I, Intelligent Waves will validate mission workflows, assess technical and cybersecurity feasibility, collect operator feedback, and establish the foundation for a potential next phase and operational transition.

“The future of coalition operations depends on trusted collaboration that can be established in minutes rather than days,” said Marqus Hutchinson, Chief Technology Officer of Intelligent Waves and Principal Investigator for the effort. “Phase I gives us the opportunity to evaluate how AI-assisted, ephemeral collaboration can help distributed teams securely share information, preserve mission context, and accelerate decision-making in operational environments.”