A team of engineers inside Google worked behind the scenes on a program for high-speed communications networks stretching from Earth to space.
On Monday, Google revealed the secret project called Aalyria, which is run by a startup, but it refused to provide details about the project, such as how long it has worked on the technology and the number of employees working on the project at the startup.
In a press release, Aleria management said its mission is to manage the "high speed and ultra-high security of highly complex communications networks that include land, sea, air, near space and deep space."
The company claims to have laser communication technology "at a scale and speed significantly greater than anything else in existence today", while the Aleria software platform has been used in many of Google's aviation network projects.
The project comes as Google's parent company, Alphabet, struggles with weak ad revenue and tries to cut back on pilot projects, in part that means seeking outside funding for some of the projects it's incubated for years.
Alphabet affiliates such as life sciences company Verily and self-driving car maker Waymo have raised money from outside investors, while Alphabet has closed projects such as Makani that were making kites. Power Generation, and Loon, a balloon company to deliver internet to remote places.
Aleria said it has an $8.7 million commercial contract with the US Defense Innovation Unit, and the company will be led by CEO Chris Taylor, a homeland security expert who has led other companies that have worked with the government.
Taylor's LinkedIn profile mentions that he is the CEO of the (yet-to-be-public) company he founded last November .
Alphabet has pursued more lucrative government contracts, and earlier this year announced Google Public Sector, a new company geared toward partnering with the US government.
Aleria's board of directors includes several former Google employees and CEOs, as well as Vint Curve, Google's leading cyber expert known as one of the fathers of the web.
Google will keep a minority stake in Aleria, but has declined to say how much it owns and how much outside funding the company has raised.
Google said earlier this year that it transferred several intellectual property certificates, patents and physical assets - including offices - to Aleria.
Aleria's laser-light technology - which it calls Tightbeam - claims to keep data "intact across the atmosphere and time and provides connectivity where there is no supporting infrastructure".
"TiteBeam is radically improving satellite and Wi-Fi communications on airplanes and ships, and ubiquitous cellular connectivity," the company said.
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