{"id":25853,"date":"2022-05-10T13:59:42","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T13:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2022\/05\/10\/how-the-pentagon-is-harnessing-5g-for-the-future-fight\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:20:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:20:30","slug":"how-the-pentagon-is-harnessing-5g-for-the-future-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/home\/2022\/05\/10\/how-the-pentagon-is-harnessing-5g-for-the-future-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Pentagon is harnessing 5G for the future fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The pivotal roles that advanced technology and data collection play on the battlefields of today and tomorrow raise a question of increasing importance: How, exactly, can one best get information to the fighters that need it, often under extreme pressure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answers and opinions abound. And not a single avenue<\/a>, it seems, will satisfy every requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials spearheading the U.S. Army\u2019s development and deployment of upgraded network tech and tools are pursuing multiple layers, multiple functions and multiple bands, seeking a resilient network for relaying intel that can withstand the challenges of warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the many potential solutions is 5G, a generation of wireless offerings<\/a> that the Department of Defense is attempting to harness and dominate before international challengers can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs you start to look at some of the future demands for information, when you get in the future battlespace, 5G is going to have a tremendous opportunity and the ability to transport some of the information at much-quicker pace and at much-higher throughput,\u201d Army Maj. Gen. Robert Collins said April 20 at the C4ISRNET Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins is the program executive officer for command, control and communications-tactical. In that role, he oversees the multibillion-dollar development, acquisition and fielding of the hardware and software<\/a> the Army needs for a hardened, intuitive and mobile network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through upgrades rolled out every two years \u2014 what\u2019s technically known as a capability set \u2014 Collins, his team and his colleagues are pushing military communications into the future. The integration of advanced cellular technology such as 5G, documents show, is expected with Capability Sets \u201825 and \u201827, each a few years down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think, once again, that is another area where it\u2019s going to be another layer of connectivity that we can afford and provide,\u201d the general said<\/a> April 20. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to have a lot of contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s up<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Pentagon officials describe 5G communications technology as foundational to all defense modernization programs and as vital to U.S. national and economic security. The military network, more broadly, has been described as the backbone of modernization, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe future? All about autonomy, robotics and artificial intelligence,\u201d Collins said during a demonstration at Fort Myer, Va., on April 26. \u201cAnd it takes two things to do that: data and the network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an October 2020 announcement, the Pentagon said it would focus on large-scale experimentation<\/a> and prototyping of dual-use 5G, the sort of thing that would provide \u201chigh speeds and quicker response times, connect many more wireless devices than current wireless technology, and enable leap-ahead capabilities for the U.S. military.\u201d It has since pursued testbeds at a dozen military installations, including sites in California, Georgia and Virginia, and unveiled a multimillion-dollar challenge to hasten the growth and adoption of an open, cooperative ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Defense Department\u2019s 5G strategy, published in 2020, is written with a sense of urgency: The nations \u201cthat master advanced communications technologies and ubiquitous connectivity will have a long-term economic and military advantage,\u201d its unclassified, public pages read. Those that don\u2019t \u2014 or those hamstrung by the fifth generation\u2019s pitfalls \u2014 will fall well behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifth-generation wireless technology promises exponentially faster speeds and the ability to accommodate more and more-advanced devices<\/a> compared with its predecessors, like 4G. Deployment in the U.S. began in late 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This explanatory illustration compares 4G with 5G. It was included in a 2020 Government Accountability Office report examining 5G wireless. (GAO\/Provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are three features that are especially important for the future. One is super-high speeds, and the second is low latency, and the third is a concept called \u2018slicing,\u2019\u201d Martin Cooper, credited with inventing the cellphone during his time at Motorola, said April 27 during a discussion with the Bipartisan Policy Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need the super speed for watching movies and our normal interaction on the internet. But if you are running a machine where you want to know precisely where that machine is at every given instant, and have that machine react quickly, super-high speeds are important,\u201d said Cooper, who stressed the technology should be used to better society and bridge the digital divide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Collins and Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey<\/a>, the director of the Army Network Cross-Functional Team, have begun looking into manned-unmanned teaming and robotics utilizing 5G. A great amount of opportunity, Collins said, exists there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A great enabler\u2019<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

When Rey took the helm at the Network Cross-Functional Team, he was quoted as saying: \u201cThe future is about data, and accessing and protecting it across transport-agnostic capabilities.\u201d Jumping from \u201c5G WiFi to terrestrial circuits,\u201d he said, \u201cto satellite-based systems as an automatic transition will give us greater operational flexibility across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 20, Rey again emphasized the value of 5G<\/a>, especially considering its potential to keep troops safe and on the move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDispersing the formation is going to be critical in the future. You can watch the ongoing operations, we\u2019ll use that as an example,\u201d the general said. \u201cDispersion of our forces will be important, and I think 5G plays a big role in that. Both terrestrial and at the space layer, I think is going to be key.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins said that sort of advantage has already been observed when it comes to command posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve seen some benefit in the terrestrial aspects, certainly as you start to look at our command posts, as we start to distribute our command posts, and where you don\u2019t necessarily have to have all primary elements of the staff physically colocated,\u201d Collins said at the C4ISRNET Conference. \u201cThey can distribute out for force protection, and 5G offers a very low latent, high throughput type of capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Army Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey, director of the Network Cross-Functional Team, and Army Maj. Gen. Robert Collins, the program executive officer for command, control and communications-tactical, listen to a presentation at Fort Myer, Virginia, April 26, 2022. (Colin Demarest\/C4ISRNET)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Navy\u2019s chief digital innovation officer, Michael Galbraith, similarly sees 5G as making future operations and capabilities possible. From pier-side links to shipboard communications<\/a> to logistical feats, there is a breadth of potential applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AT&T this year claimed initial success in setting up a 5G network experiment that could make smart warehouses a reality for the Navy, Defense News reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe in the Navy, you know, we work at the edge, have been working at the edge since the 1700s,\u201d Galbraith said April 19 at the Cloudera Government Forum<\/a>. \u201cIn that information domain, there are other network capabilities, and 5G just is, again, a great enabler.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurdles to clear<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Embracing 5G is not without risks. The Government Accountability Office in a 2020 report said 5G could introduce new paths for cyberattacks, exacerbate existing privacy concerns and face broader implementation challenges and expensive infrastructure costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been boisterous debates about what tech can be trusted. Perhaps the most public has been about Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications and electronics Goliath former President Donald Trump and others considered a grave threat<\/a> to national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are hurdles in the field \u2014 or the canopy \u2014 as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the same token, 5G has sensitivities when it comes to foliage, blockage and other activities,\u201d Collins said<\/a> April 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Institute of Standards and Technology this year said scientists studied for months how obstacles including trees and shrubs would interfere with 5G.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe tree study is one of the few out there that looks at the same tree\u2019s effect on a particular signal frequency through different seasons,\u201d Nada Golmie, head of NIST\u2019s wireless networks division in the Communications Technology Laboratory, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t only do the survey in the winter, because things would have changed by summer. It turns out that even the shape of leaves affects whether a signal will reflect or get through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t