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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The DIANA initiative, which was launched in 2022, was set up to boost cooperation on emerging technologies and foster a far-reaching innovation network. It’s particularly focused on supporting startups and other players in the high-tech sector that are working on dual-use technologies.

The number of related tech accelerator sites across the multinational network will jump from 11 to 23, and the number of test centers will increase from 90 to 182, the alliance announced Thursday. New hubs are expected to come online in the coming months.

After the expansion — which is intended to enhance the alliance’s capacity to support companies and other participants as they develop their tech — there will be DIANA locations in 28 nations.

“They will focus on solving some of our biggest defense and security challenges and sharpening our technological edge in areas ranging from artificial intelligence and cyber to 5G, hypersonics, and autonomous systems,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels Thursday, according to a press release.

NATO picked the first DIANA cohort late last year, selecting 44 organizations out of more than 1,300 applicants after an evaluation of their proposals. They were tasked with addressing challenges related to undersea sensing and surveillance, secure information-sharing and energy resilience. Each firm was expected to receive 100,000 euros to help pay for expenses as they develop their solutions.

“I think it’s a really interesting example of how you can use an organization like NATO to reach out beyond the traditional defense sector,” a senior NATO official told reporters in December during a Defense Writers Group meeting in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“They will now be working with DIANA’s mentors to really develop their projects,” the official said. “That’s the first time around. And the whole system is set up in a way that is very dynamic. And so it’s going to be learning from this first cohort of innovators and refining every year … The system is built in a way that we will adjust and upgrade and innovate with every single cohort.”

Finland — which officially joined NATO last year after the country applied for membership following Russia’s 2022 large-scale invasion of Ukraine — will host an accelerator site and two test centers, the nation’s Ministry of Defence announced Thursday. Sweden — which also sought to join the alliance following the Russian invasion — officially became the newest member of NATO last week, opening up opportunities for Swedish companies to participate in DIANA.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland will set up an accelerator in Otaniemi in collaboration with Aalto University and the University of Helsinki, which will initially focus on next-generation communications as well as quantum tech. The new test centers — which will be located at the University of Oulu and the Otaniemi office of VTT — will be geared toward cyber-secure communications, quantum, space and 6G network technologies, according to a release.

“Digital communications systems play a vital role in modern warfare. Investing in different kinds of test environments and pursuing international research and development cooperation are central to verifying the military usability of new technologies. We have a high level of expertise and a tradition of long-term investment in communication network and quantum technologies. Finland’s active involvement in DIANA opens up new opportunities, reinforces the technological and industrial base of Finland’s defense and improves the security of the Alliance through national top expertise,” Finland’s Minister of Defense Antti Häkkänen said in a statement.

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The Pentagon plans to award up to $280 million next year for Microelectronics Commons projects, according to a press release. Funding for the program supports six technology areas: secure edge and Internet of Things computing; 5G and 6G; AI hardware; quantum; electromagnetic warfare; and “leap-ahead” commercial technologies.

“The U.S. military has an ever-increasing need for innovation in the microelectronics that underpin many of our modern weapon systems, including communications equipment, planes, tanks, long-range munitions, and sensors. This Call for Proposals is the next step in our effort to bridge the valley of death from ‘lab-to-fab,’” Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering David Honey said in a statement.

The term “valley of death,” in defense acquisition parlance, refers to challenges that are often encountered in transitioning promising technologies from research and development into production.

“Today, microelectronics designs that are proven within U.S. universities and businesses of all sizes frequently do not enter large-scale production because the transition from laboratory to fabrication is notoriously difficult; a high technology readiness does not mean high manufacturability. The Commons is focused on easing this transition for microelectronics that are essential for our national security,” according to the release. “The Commons aims to ensure that the U.S. defense industrial base will have access to a robust pipeline of world-leading microelectronics produced in U.S. foundries, and the ability to shape that pipeline to address the future demands of our warfighters.”

The initiative is supported by eight innovation hubs that were announced in September, which are intended to help scale production. They include the Northeast Regional Defense Tech Hub in New York; Southwest Advanced Prototyping Hub in Arizona; Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide-bandgap Semiconductors Hub in North Carolina; Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons Hub in Indiana; Midwest Microelectronics Consortium Hub in Ohio; California Defense Ready Electronics and Microdevices Superhub; California-Pacific-Northwest Artificial Intelligence
Hardware Hub; and Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Hub in New England.

More than 380 organizations are part of the various hubs, including more than 100 academic institutions, according to the Pentagon.

Respondents to the solicitation must be members of the National Security Technology Accelerator and a Microelectronics Commons hub, according to the call for proposals.

The DOD plans to award prototype other transaction agreements for selected projects, which may lead to follow-on awards.

“Upon successful completion of this prototype effort, the Government anticipates that a follow-on production effort may be awarded via either contract or transaction, without the use of competitive procedures,” according to the solicitation.

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division is the contracting activity.

Responses are due Feb. 28, 2024. The Pentagon anticipates issuing awards in the third quarter of fiscal 2024.

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The project, known as Open6G, is part of the Pentagon’s Innovate Beyond 5G (IB5G) program that aims to promote the next generation of high-tech network capabilities.

In a press release Tuesday, the DOD described Open6G as an “industry-university cooperative effort that aims to jumpstart 6G systems research on open radio access networks (Open RAN).”

“Open6G will serve as the DoD’s hub for development, testing, and integration of trusted enhancements, supporting an industry and federal government NextG ecosystem pursuing 6G technology goals,” according to the release.

The Pentagon is helping to fund the project through a $1.77 million award.

Northeastern University’s Kostas Research Institute has been tapped to manage the new hub through a cooperative agreement with the Army Research Laboratory. The technical work will be housed at the university’s Institute for Wireless Internet of Things, according to the DOD.

The Pentagon has initiated a number of 5G pilot projects and experiments on military bases in recent years in hopes that the technology will yield improved military capabilities in areas such as augmented/virtual reality for mission planning and training, “smart warehouses” for logistics, and distributed command and control. But the department is also making targeted investments to try to help lay the groundwork for the next generation of systems.

“The DoD has a vital interest in advancing 5G-to-NextG wireless technologies and concept demonstrations,” IB5G program director Sumit Roy said in the release. “These efforts represent our continuing investments via public and private sector collaboration on research & development for critical Beyond 5G technology enablers necessary to realize high performance, secure, and resilient network operations for the future warfighter.”

Other recent IB5G program initiatives highlighted in the release include a new Spectrum Exchange Security and Scalability project with Zylinium Research, focused on leveraging advancing dynamic spectrum allocation technology; and a “Massive Multi-Input/Multi-Output (MIMO) from MHz to GHz” project in partnership Nokia Bell Labs to explore technologies that could enable scaling MIMO technology across different bands and bandwidths with the aim of increasing resiliency and throughput for wireless tactical communication.

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