The document, dated June 17 and signed by acting CTO Justin Fanelli, noted the need to “accelerate the adoption of game changing commercial technology.”

The list of priorities “can help shape resource allocation decisions across the enterprise,” he wrote, adding that it should serve as a “signaling tool” to industry partners and private capital to inform how they allocate their resources and focus their efforts.

Artificial intelligence and autonomy top the list of “Level 1” technologies in the hierarchy.

“AI and autonomy play a vital role in information warfare by enabling decision advantage and enhancing the ability of human-machine teaming. The DON seeks AI-driven solutions for real-time data analysis and automated decision-making to enhance operational effectiveness,” Fanelli wrote.

Level 2 technologies under this category include capabilities like applied machine learning and natural language processing; model verification and AI risk governance; mission platforms and human-machine interfaces; and edge AI infrastructure and DevSecOps pipelines.

Next on the list is quantum tech, which Fanelli said will transform secure communications, computing and sensing for information warfare. He noted that quantum encryption could protect the department’s networks from adversaries, and quantum computing would boost data processing and cryptographic resilience.

Level 2 technologies in this area include tools such as post-quantum cryptography and quantum-enhanced communication; hybrid quantum-classical architectures; quantum gravimetry and inertial navigation; and “quantum interconnects and cryogenic systems.”

“Transport and connectivity” are third on the list. According to Fanelli’s memo, the Navy is prioritizing advanced networking, secure communications, 5G and FutureG tech to enable real-time data sharing and command and control.

Level 2 technologies under this category include things like 5G and FutureG nodes and mesh architectures; dynamic spectrum sharing and anti-jamming techniques; datalinks and “ship-to-X” mesh networks; and cloudlets and intelligent routing.

Fourth on the list is command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — also known as C5ISR — as well as counter-C5ISR and space capabilities.

“The DON seeks to integrate advanced sensor networks, improve automated data fusion, and develop resilient space-based architectures to support real-time intelligence gathering,” Fanelli wrote.

Level 2 technologies in this area include capabilities such as multi-INT engines and automated targeting; operational pictures and targeting algorithms; hybrid constellations and positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) from space; and open architectures and multi-coalition information sharing.

Fifth on the list is tech related to cyberspace operations and zero trust.

“Cyber threats are evolving rapidly, making Zero Trust Architecture essential for securing DON information networks. Priorities include advanced cyber defense frameworks, threat intelligence automation, and proactive security measures to counter adversarial cyber operations,” per the memo.

Level 2 capabilities under this category include things like identity and access management — such as attribute-based access control and federated identity systems — micro segmentation and risk-adaptive controls for zero trust, cyber threat hunting and deception, and operational technology (OT) security — such as industrial control system and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) protection and remote access.

The complete list of tech priorities for Levels 1, 2 and 3 can be found here.

“A lot of these areas are mainly being driven by commercial tech,” Deputy CTO Michael Frank said in an interview. “It’s going to be a mix of … traditional defense vendors, traditional primes. But you know, we are really focused on getting some new entrants in, right? So, expanding the defense industrial base, getting some new players on the field. And this is a signal to them. This memo is meant to be a signal to them and what we’re focused on, what our priorities areas are, so they can better make decisions … If you’re an entrepreneur in this area or if you’re a VC who’s looking to invest, you know these are the general areas that we’re looking at.”

The Navy is looking to cast a wide net for new capabilities.

“We’re going to be looking at emerging tech from anybody and everyone who is operating in these areas and developing things in these areas, to include the other players in the defense innovation ecosystem. So, you know, looking at what DIU is doing, partnering with In-Q-Tel and what they are doing, because we want to make sure that we have awareness of all the various efforts across government to reduce waste, to reduce redundant spend, reduce redundant efforts, given the fact that we are operating in a resource-constrained environment, both with money and with people and time and effort and all of that,” Frank said.

The CTO’s office is aiming to accelerate the transition of key capabilities to the Navy and Marine Corps.

“We are absolutely more interested in higher [technology readiness levels],” Frank said. “We are more focused on things that we can start testing, validating and transitioning to the warfighter now.”

The list of priority technology areas is meant to be updated over time, he noted.

“This is a living list, it’s an evolving list. You know these technology areas are not going to be static. I mean, Level 1 will probably not change for a while, but the Level 2 and Level 3 … will and should be regularly updated in order for it to be useful to industry partners,” Frank said.

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The upcoming RPP will be for the open centralized unit distributed unit (OCUDU) project.

“What Linux did for breaking open the internet and what Kubernetes did for allowing us access to cloud, we need to have the same kind of transformative technology for wireless communications,” Tom Rondeau, head of the Pentagon’s FutureG Office, said Thursday at the AITalks conference, presented by AIScoop.

“As wireless communications 5G is advancing, it is becoming a key part of the solution to future technologies. [As] future AI- and ML-based technologies are integrated with the network, how do we get that data from the edge and how do we understand the world around us? How do we pull that back? All that has to be opened up so that the innovation cycles will continue,” he said.

Rondeau noted that the DOD wants to work with the commercial sector as it looks to meet its own niche needs.

“How do we actually program these systems? How do we actually access the internals of them? And how do we advance and innovate rapidly to meet those rapid changes in the battlefield conditions today? We need to open up these systems, break them open,” he said.

The OCUDU project aims to deliver defense-unique capabilities on a “commercially sustainable” platform, according to Rondeau’s slide presentation. The aim is to reduce acquisition costs and push new capabilities to the field.

The Pentagon wants systems that are secure, resilient, AI-driven, ubiquitous, interoperable, cost-effective, customizable and “transparent.”

The FutureG Office is partnering with the National Spectrum Consortium to host an industry day, slated for May 7, to brief vendors on the OCUDU effort, according to Rondeau.

Officials want to “make sure that the entire industry knows what we’re doing here, why we’re doing it, why we think this provides that secure, robust, cost-effective, innovation solution for using 6G technologies in the battlefield,” Rondeau said.

A request for prototype proposals will likely come out in June, he said, and an award is estimated for the August-September time frame.

“What we’re really going for here is a carrier-grade cellular solution that is based on open-source technologies. We’re going to get that started and rolling in the next fiscal year, and that’s going to be a major effort that we’re going to be pursuing across the Defense Department and with commercial industry. We’re going to set this up for future commercial success so we can continue to take advantage” of those capabilities, Rondeau said.

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The DOD is looking to the next-generation wireless tech to further build on the improved speeds, latency and capacity it gained with 5G and support the U.S. military’s use of new capabilities at the edge.

With that, Macklin said the Pentagon is beginning to experiment with 6G in a variety of ways.

“6G will introduce some new features that some of the community are aware of, but I don’t think all fully appreciate the implications of that,” Macklin said at Elastic’s Public Sector Summit, produced by FedScoop.

As an example, the FutureG Office has been experimenting with a concept called Integrated Sensing and Communication, which uses radio frequencies of all objects — including those not actively transmitting data — connected to a network to create situational awareness of the surrounding environment, according to Macklin.

“So as these RF signals are going out there, moving from radio towers connecting to our devices, they transmit our voice data … they transmit data as our devices connect to the internet. But as those RF signals are bouncing around the environment, they can also paint a picture of what’s going on in that environment,” he explained.

One way in which the U.S. military could apply this emerging concept is to improve awareness and management of drones in a given environment, Macklin said.

“We’ve got a lot of drone delivery businesses that will expand their operations, right? So where we understand the standards are currently heading with that is drone swarm control, drone deconfliction, and then also drone detection,” he said.

Macklin continued: “If you’ve been tracking what’s been going on in the news recently, when you add a national security perspective to that, we sure have had a lot of incidents where folks who are weaponizing commercial drones. So I think your imagination can run pretty fast with why that is important, why we need to lead innovation in that area.”

Late last year, the Defense Department expressed frustration when it couldn’t figure out who was responsible for flying drones near military installations in New Jersey. But a new capability like Integrated Sensing and Communication supported by 6G might aid in addressing such incidents with threatening drones, Macklin implied.

And, because of existing investments in 5G wireless technology, fielding 6G shouldn’t come with a huge price tag in terms of supporting infrastructure.

A capability like Integrated Sensing and Communication “will be integrated into existing digital infrastructure. You don’t need to add a lot of new equipment. You can provide new capabilities out of existing infrastructure,” Macklin said.

As the Pentagon continues its efforts to explore and adopt next-generation wireless technologies like 6G, Macklin said it’s participating in a “whole-of-government approach” that allows modularity and interoperability called Open Radio Access Network, or Open RAN. He called it “our big play to drive innovation within the U.S. and with other stakeholders.”

In November, the department awarded Hughes Network Systems a $6.5 million contract to develop an Open RAN prototype at Fort Bliss, Texas, to test and evaluate advanced wireless capabilities for military applications. The capability was expected to offer “increased functionality and scalability of 5G wireless networks, incorporation of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) into DoD systems, and greater flexibility in acquiring or replacing the software and hardware used in military equipment,” the department stated in a press release.

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Under the contract, Hughes will install 5G O-RAN equipment at the base that will operate a temporary network for preliminary evaluation, according to a press release. The network will eventually transition to the company’s commercial network in order to support both Pentagon and commercial customers in and around the military installation.

The project will be a joint effort between the Army, the Pentagon’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the release noted.

“The Open RAN project at Fort Bliss is a valuable opportunity for the DoD to explore the enhanced command and control capabilities that near-real time control of the RAN offers DoD,” Anthony Smith, acting DOD CIO for command, control and communications, said in a statement. “The DoD CIO will continue to prioritize the deployment of Open RAN architectures and 5G across the Department, leveraging these information communications technologies for strategic warfighter advantage.”

Advancing 5G communications capabilities for military applications has been a key priority for the Pentagon’s FutureG office in recent years, specifically via O-RAN technology. While current radio access networks use standalone hardware and software platforms, O-RAN is a multi-vendor solution that separates the software and hardware and allows for different vendors to simultaneously operate on the same network.

The capability would offer “increased functionality and scalability of 5G wireless networks, incorporation of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) into DoD systems, and greater flexibility in acquiring or replacing the software and hardware used in military equipment,” a department press release stated.

The project at Fort Bliss will serve as the testing ground for development of a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) — a software component that optimizes the radio access network. The effort is expected to lay foundations for O-RAN installation at other military locations, while also establishing a training site for staff.

“The primary use case that the Fort Bliss prototype will test through the RIC is the ability to rapidly change spectrum at the 5G control node, a capability that has real world relevance to resilient communications for a mobile command post,” per the release.

The new prototype effort follows a number of O-RAN technology pilots kickstarted by the Pentagon’s FutureG office in 2023, which allowed the department to work with companies and understand how open networks and software approaches can improve communication capabilities for warfighters.

Hughes has previously worked with the Defense Department in advancing wireless technology for service members. The company received a contract in 2022 to deploy a standalone 5G network at the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington, which established the first 5G O-RAN network at a U.S. military base, according to Hughes. In 2024, Hughes received a follow-on extension contract to continue 5G deployment at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii.

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The office, which is in charge of research-and-development efforts for advanced wireless network capabilities, has three projects underway in its “Beyond 5G” portfolio that it plans to carry out through at least fiscal 2025. Collectively, the programs aim to enhance the Pentagon’s ability to connect and maneuver within the electromagnetic spectrum, Tom Rondeau, principal director for FutureG at the Pentagon, told DefenseScoop.

“We have more readily available access to spectrum than we ever have, and it keeps increasing. So our ability to maneuver within the spectrum from a single system keeps advancing,” Rondeau said in a recent interview on the sidelines of NDIA’s Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition.

Future generations of wireless communications will use higher frequencies on the spectrum than their predecessors, therefore providing faster connections with lower latency compared to 5G and others. The tech is also expected to be highly scalable, allowing for devices to use multiple connections simultaneously — meaning they can stay online even if one network source is interrupted or interfered with.

The Beyond 5G portfolio largely focuses on R&D to leverage these advancements for military applications. The Office of the Secretary of Defense requested $55.1 million in fiscal 2024 to fund the portfolio’s work — including the three applied research projects.

One of those efforts is to develop a Unlimited Software-defined Radio that isn’t bound by hardware and previous generations’ architecture and implementation constraints. The capability will let users leverage any part of the spectrum with any waveform, improving overall spectrum management capabilities, Rondeau said.

“Spectrum is a maneuver space, and so we need to be able to take advantage of that,” he said. “We still think of spectrum and warfighting in terms of, ‘What channel are you on?’ … We really need to be flexible and maneuverable around all these.”

Once warfighters have access to more spectrum, they’ll need to easily navigate the network without worrying about whether or not they’re on the right communications channel. Rondeau explained that another research project — Hyper-dimensional Software-defined Networks — will enable autonomous optimization of wireless network operations to solve the problem.

“The network needs to tell the system what to do,” he said, adding that the technology will “be able to understand not what your radio needs to do, but what everyone needs to do. And so, how do I look across this from the different physical access that we have, the geometries of where you’re at?”

It’s a multidimensional problem that requires the FutureG office to consider how both terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks can optimize across several domains at once, he noted. 

Speaking during a panel discussion at the NDIA conference, Rondeau emphasized that non-terrestrial networks — including satellite constellations and airborne platforms — are key to providing warfighters with ubiquitous, secure and instant communications in austere environments.

“It’s not just satellite constellations, it’s not just the proliferated [low-Earth orbit] concepts — it’s all the layers above us,” Rondeau said. “It can be [unmanned aerial vehicles] enabling these systems, or high-altitude platforms and balloons that might be able to be subset systems to pLEO all the way up to [geosynchronous orbit] as part of our hybrid access to infrastructure.”

The third research project underway at the FutureG office is development of Mobile Internet Protocol advancements so that new systems can integrate with the rest of the network, Rondeau told DefenseScoop.

Traditional internet protocols were created for legacy devices that are designed to be plugged into fixed sites, such as computers. Even mobile phones that roam across coverage areas are connected to a centralized cellular network that works to manage how a device stays connected, he explained.

Therefore, the FutureG office is trying to understand “the next generation of internet protocol that is fundamentally rooted in mobility,” as well as how it should be managed, Rondeau said.

Overall, the three projects represent a hard engineering and technical problem for the FutureG office, especially as it looks to scale capabilities across the entire Defense Department.

“When you’re talking about what waveform to use, what frequency to use [and] power consumption, … if you’re trying to optimize all these simultaneously, they’re actually competing goals,” he explained. “Then, as you’re trying to do this across multiple — maybe hundreds of thousands — of radio systems in the future, all operating in the battlefield, now you’re trying to schedule who gets what, when, what resources go to what place and all these things.”

Another challenge is the unstable fiscal environment that has plagued the Defense Department and other federal agencies in recent years, in addition to a lack of transparency from the White House and Congress regarding potential funding cuts, he said. Uncertainty in the budgetary decisions could lead the FutureG office into a more conservative approach to how it spends money, which in turn could stifle the advancement and delivery of new technologies, he added.

In OSD’s budget request for FY ’25, the Beyond 5G portfolio would receive $38.5 million — $16.6 million less than the previous year’s request. According to budget documents, the decrease was due to “a directed reduction that was applied to meet DOD overall funding benchmarks.” 

If approved by lawmakers, the 2025 funding would go towards continued development of the office’s ongoing programs, as well as adding new projects focused on contested logistics, open-source software solutions and multi-site FutureG experimentation, the documents stated.

“If they’re going to cut my budget, then tell me about it. Don’t surprise us. And if it’s a non-starter to crawl back the budget, at least I’ve got time to properly plan,” Rondeau said. “It’s that level of uncertainty that prevents us from really creating a space for the innovation that I need.”

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The FutureG office at the Pentagon has been working to expand the scale of previous efforts to research and test 5G and future-generation wireless network capabilities. As the office eyes 5G deployment, Tom Rondeau, principal director for FutureG at the Pentagon, emphasized that taking capabilities developed through research-and-development efforts and conducting live experiments is key to successful implementation.

“It’s all about the reps and the experience of getting this stuff out of the lab and into the real world, understanding the limitations, understanding the difficulties of these radio systems,” Rondeau told DefenseScoop on Wednesday during an interview at NDIA’s Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference and Exhibition.

The Pentagon has held a number of next-generation communications experiments in the past. In 2020, the department awarded contracts to multiple vendors to set up 5G and FutureG testbed projects at different military bases across the U.S., each of which evaluated a different way warfighters can leverage the technology, such as with smart warehouses and spectrum sharing.

The office also established open radio access network (O-RAN) technology pilots in 2023 at other installations, with the goal of working with companies to understand how to implement open networks and open software approaches to wireless communications.

By the end of this year, Rondeau said the FutureG office has plans to add 5G capabilities on force protection surveillance towers at three bases in the U.S. Africa Command located in eastern Africa. Made by defense tech company Anduril and funded by the Pentagon, the towers were built using tactical radios and don’t have inherent 5G capability, meaning they have lower data rates, resolution and frame rates, he noted.

Speaking of the collaboration, Rondeau said: “That was working with Anduril and saying, ‘This is why it’s important to go 5G because of these additional features.’”

“Over the past year, we’ve actually been funding the performers to upgrade them to where we now have high-definition video at high frame rates coming through,” he added. “This can be the difference between identifying somebody holding a baby and holding an AK-47.”

The standalone, self-powered towers provide full-peripheral coverage of the bases, and AFRICOM will also soon be deploying an unmanned aerial vehicle to extend the range of their situational awareness beyond the fixed site, Rondeau said.

The FutureG office will also be involved in a multinational 5G experiment at Camp Adazi in Latvia with NATO partners this fall, Rondeau said. One of the largest ranges in the Baltics, Adazi has already been upgraded with 5G technologies by the Latvia Mobile Telecom to test the technology for military applications, and thereby advancing the overall market for 5G, he explained.

“We’ve now got Latvia, Estonia, U.S. forces of course, Spain, Norway and Sweden — as well as the Michigan Air National Guard — that are all part of this experiment we’re going to be conducting,” Rondeau said. “Let’s take this stuff into the real world. Let’s take it into a range where there’s kinetic operations that are happening all around there. That’s going to teach us a lot about the value proposition of these technologies,”

He added that the experiment should result in “a miniature version” of Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2). The Pentagon-wide initiative looks to connect data streams from across U.S. military services and international allies and partners to enable better and faster decision-making.

Although it’s not directly involved in the effort right now, the FutureG office still talks to department officials leading CJADC2 intermittently, Rondeau said.

“Working with NATO and with the Joint Staff on this, we’re showing that interoperability at the network layer is done,” he noted. “With 5G as the core network, with high-capacity and improved security features that we’ve been working on, all of that is now possible.”

The goal for forthcoming exercises will be providing interoperability at the data layer and ensuring that stakeholders are integrating with the new data layers developed by the Joint Staff and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, he added.

Updated on Aug. 22, 2024, at 3:55 PM: This story has been updated to remove a confusing reference to the FutureG office’s relationship to the Pentagon’s Chief Information Officer.

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For the last few years, the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering has been working to adopt 5G and future-generation wireless network technologies across the department. On Oct. 1, the CIO’s organization will take the lead on those efforts and expand the scope of current 5G testing and experimentation, Sherman announced at the DefenseTalks conference hosted by DefenseScoop..

“We’ve already been working left-seat and right-seat with research and engineering on this,” he said. “But we’ve got the lead as of Oct. 1 on the 5G pilots that are underway at the numerous DOD installations.”

In 2020, the Pentagon awarded contracts to multiple prime contractors to set up 5G and “FutureG” test bed projects at different military bases across the country. Each site experiments with a different way the department can utilize the technology, including creating smart warehouses enabled by 5G and bi-directional spectrum sharing.

As Sherman’s office takes over these initiatives, he’s particularly interested in scaling these efforts to include open radio access network (O-RAN) technology pilots at additional installations, he said.

“We’re working with a number of U.S. companies potentially on this, looking at multi-service installations as we move away from a closed network, black-box sort of thing … to more of an open network, open software approach that our U.S. industry can work and dominate on,” Sherman said.

O-RAN technology is a version of the radio access network system, which is the component connecting individual devices to a wireless network. While current RAN technology uses an integrated hardware and software platform, O-RAN is a multi-vendor solution that separates the software and hardware and enables open interfaces and virtualization.

The Defense Department has some foundations in exploring O-RAN technology for its military modernization efforts. In February, the Pentagon sponsored a technology challenge aimed at validating the tech and helping establish the deployment readiness of O-RAN systems. 

Traditional radio access networks are “a critical component to get information from your phone or your device into the rest of the network — it’s the middle part between those two systems,” Tom Rondeau, principal director for FutureG and 5G at the Pentagon, said during a panel at DefenseTalks. “These are black boxes, they’re walled off, they’re very tightly controlled systems that are very expensive.”

But adopting O-RAN technology could be key for the Pentagon’s 5G and FutureG efforts, as it would allow the department to “break open that black box into different components,” he said. 

Not only would the Pentagon’s focus on O-RAN bring new competition to the market and incentivize new innovation, the open architecture approach would also allow the department to experiment with new features in wireless communications, such as zero-trust security features, he noted.

“It’s going to change the game,” Rondeau said.

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The “2023 5G Challenge: Advanced Interoperability” initiative will be led by the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences division of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and is being sponsored by the Defense Department’s FutureG and 5G Office, which falls under Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Heidi Shyu.

“The 5G Challenge will help establish the deployment readiness of Open RAN systems — an important factor in future decisions about updating communications infrastructure on Department of Defense facilities under the base modernization initiatives in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023. The military services will provide plans for such modernization this year and prepare to undertake them over the next three years at hundreds of DoD facilities,” per a DOD press release on Thursday.

The competition will “help validate Open RAN as the architecture of the future,” it added.

Applications are due by March 1. An informational webinar will be held Feb. 9.

Competitors will vie for up to $6.22 million in cash prizes. The total prize pool is worth up to $7 million including in-kind prizes.

A key aim of the two-year, four-stage effort is to accelerate the adoption of open interfaces, interoperable subsystems, secure networks, and modular, multi-vendor solutions, according to the event website.

The prize money will go to participations who “successfully showcase the best ability to integrate with other participants to establish end-to-end (E2E) sessions and demonstrate mobility.”

The initiative will accept combined central unit (CU) and distributed unit (DU), and radio unit (RU) subsystems from qualified applicants.

This year’s challenge is just the latest of many U.S. government moves to push the Defense Department to adopt next-generation communication technologies. Last year’s 5G challenge focused on demonstrating RAN subsystem interoperability.

At the direction of Congress, the DOD last year also established a cross-functional team focused on these capabilities. And the FutureG and 5G Office, which falls under the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, has been tasked with spearheading key modernization efforts.

The Defense Department is also helping to fund an Open6G technology hub, which is part of the Pentagon’s Innovate Beyond 5G (IB5G) program, which aims to “jumpstart 6G systems research on open radio access networks (Open RAN).”

A number of other 5G pilot projects and experiments have also been launched on U.S. military bases in recent years as officials look to leverage the technology for things like augmented/virtual reality for mission planning and training, “smart warehouses” for logistics, and distributed command and control.

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