Prometheus Security Group Global (PSG) and Zignal Labs have been selected by AFWERX for a Small Business Innovation Research Phase I contract to evaluate the feasibility of integrating physical security technology with open-source intelligence capabilities.

The contract, approximately $74,000, will focus on combining PSG’s portable Zero Trust physical security technology stack with Zignal Labs’ intelligence capabilities to address Department of the Air Force security challenges.

The proposed approach combines PSG’s critical infrastructure systems for detecting, authenticating and communicating physical security events with Zignal’s multimodal collection, enrichment and alerting capabilities.

PSG’s technology uses a modular open systems approach that includes hardware-rooted device authentication designed to verify physical security events at their source. Zignal’s technology transforms information collected from open sources into structured and contextualized intelligence.

The Phase I effort will evaluate whether integrating the technologies can provide security forces with earlier warning and additional context about potential threats developing beyond a protected facility or resource.

“Force protection is a standoff problem, and everything we’ve built for fifty years buys standoff in meters,” said Thomas E. Segars Jr., director of strategic security programs at PSG and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. “This effort allows us to explore how we buy standoff in time, from a domain with no fence line.”

Segars said combining trusted detection at a protected resource with indicators from the broader information environment could extend the protection envelope beyond an installation or resource, particularly in dispersed and expeditionary locations.

“The indicators which precede a threat often emerge well beyond the physical perimeter,” said Chad Lawson, senior vice president of revenue and strategic partnerships at Zignal Labs and a retired U.S. Army Special Operations Command master sergeant. “This Phase I effort will evaluate how fusing open source intelligence together with physical security sensor data can give security forces a more complete operational picture of activity developing around mission-defined areas of interest.”

Lawson said the goal is to extend the warning window, reduce noise and provide security forces with more time and context to respond across both garrison and deployed missions.

Linking physical security and intelligence

PSG provides a unified physical security platform built on Zero Trust Architecture. Its technology is designed to extend trust to devices at the edge while connecting legacy analog systems with digital networks to produce authenticated data for security, situational awareness and operational resilience. The company serves defense, energy, government and critical infrastructure customers.

Zignal Labs provides AI and agentic intelligence technology for national security applications. Its platform ingests, filters, enriches, validates and structures publicly available information across text, imagery and video. Applications cited by the company include earlier warning, force protection, maritime awareness and influence detection.

The Phase I project is being conducted through the Air Force’s SBIR program. The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have worked to streamline the SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer process, including accelerating proposal-to-award timelines and expanding opportunities for small businesses.

The Department of the Air Force began offering its Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 to expand the range of innovations eligible for funding.

AFWERX is the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force and a division within the Air Force Research Laboratory. It works with small businesses, startups and nontraditional vendors on challenges facing Airmen and Guardians. According to the announcement, AFWERX awarded more than 1,000 contracts totaling $1.37 billion in fiscal year 2025 and recorded 438 Phase III transitions valued at $8.1 billion.