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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In December 2024, the DOD’s Office of the Chief Information Officer published a solicitation for the Advanced Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Demonstration, which called for industry technology that could allow the Pentagon and private sector to simultaneously use the same spectrum band. The department is currently evaluating proposals for source selection and intends to conduct the demonstration in November 2025, Tom Rondeau, principal director for the FutureG office, said Wednesday.

“We’re focused on the lower 3 GHz band. … It is a very difficult band for DOD. We have dozens of types of systems — hundreds of systems total — that operate in that lower 3 Ghz band,” Rondeau said during a panel at the Apex Defense Conference. “How do we share that? How can we do that with commercial success? Because that is important too, … but we can’t do it at the cost of national security.”

The demonstration comes following years of back-and-forth between the Defense Department and the commercial telecommunications industry over access to the 3.1-3.45 GHz S-band used by the Pentagon to operate different radars, weapons and other electronic systems. However, the telecom industry wants part of that spectrum to meet rising demand for commercial and civil 5G wireless technology.

While the debate over spectrum access has been going on for decades, lawmakers and Pentagon officials have recently expressed concerns that auctioning off parts of the spectrum to industry could hamper President Donald Trump’s homeland missile defense project known as Golden Dome.

After a congressionally mandated study determined that it’s possible for the Pentagon and industry to share the lower 3 GHz band of the spectrum, the Biden administration’s 2023 National Spectrum Strategy called for additional analysis into dynamic spectrum-sharing operations. 

According to the department’s RFP for this year’s demonstration, the results of the event will help inform the follow-on study requested by the National Spectrum Strategy.

“The goal of this effort is to show how advancements in one or more of the key spectrum-sharing enablers can achieve the overall objective of proving the viability of spectrum sharing in the 3100-3450 MHz band,” the RFP stated.

The experiment will be coordinated in partnership between the Pentagon and the National Spectrum Consortium, which represents hundreds of industry and academia organizations working on spectrum-related issues, as well as other federal agencies.

The department has conducted a number of experiments on dynamic spectrum-sharing operations in the past, but Rondeau noted that the November demonstration will be the first of its kind in terms of size and scale.

“The real gap that we’ve had in these past spectrum-sharing projects has been scale. They’ve been, frankly, under-resourced concepts on a table, maybe in a lab, maybe one or two outdoor experiments here and there. But nothing at this scale, which is a large-scale, multi-domain spectrum-sharing demonstration,” he said.

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Next Generation Command and Control — the state of the Army’s future network and the service’s number one priority for modernization — has been billed as an entirely new way of doing business with a clean-slate approach rather than continuing to either bolt on or work within the confines of existing systems and processes. NGC2 aims to provide commanders and units a new approach to information, data and command and control through agile and software-based architectures.

A prototype of the system was recently tested at Project Convergence at Fort Irwin, California, in March.

As part of that updated network architecture and approach, service leaders are envisioning the elimination of single- and two-channel radios for troops on the ground. In their place will be what the Army calls end user devices, which are Android devices that are strapped to soldiers’ chests and have typically been reserved for team leaders.

These end user devices feature position and location information. They can now also enable communication using emerging voice-over-IP technology.

“The fundamental difference [between the existing network and NGC2] is in that data and transport layer because we are convinced that if we get that part right, there will be a day when our soldiers, instead of carrying … the batteries, the multiple radios that are out there, it’s an end user device at the edge and that is all that they’re going to need for the next fight,” Gen. James Mingus, Army vice chief of staff, said Tuesday at an event hosted by AUSA. “No more radios, no more batteries, because all I’m carrying is an end user device on the edge.”

A separate official clarified that the tactical level, battalion and below, is where the Army envisions eliminating single- and two-channel radios. Higher echelons will still need larger pipes and thus will still require radios.

Mingus explained that while the cloud storage and edge compute and storage is more refined, the terrestrial transport layer for data is something the Army will have to smooth out over the next year.

In the future, instead of using individual radios, forces will move radio frequency signals from point A to point B through “pucks on trucks,” Mingus said.

“Anything that moves, it’s got a puck on it that emits, it’s bringing in the long-haul comms, and then it’s establishing that terrestrial-based mesh through a series of pucks that are on the battlefield that then connects to the end user device,” he said.

The Army has been on a radio journey for many years, trying to determine the right mix, at what echelon certain capabilities are needed and even exploring if an as-a-service model makes sense.

Some in industry have noted that there’s a massive shift going on within the Army from what worked in the recent past to a penchant for something completely new — and it’s not clear to some industry members why that’s the case.

The approach of eliminating radios in favor of voice-over-IP, WiFi or 5G pucks to provide transport is puzzling to some observers. They warn it could put the Army at risk of not having a diverse enough architecture for what officials call PACE, or primary, alternate, contingency and emergency.

In future operating environments against sophisticated adversaries, enemies will seek to jam or deny communications and data access across certain waveforms and parts of the spectrum these systems operate on. Thus, it is important to have a diverse set of transport to where units can fall over to still conduct their missions and pass data if one system fails or is jammed.

“To see such a drastic shift, to say that Next Gen [C2] doesn’t include any forms of radios, I think it puzzles a lot of people … It’s a head scratcher,” an industry source said.

They added that while the networks support the push-to-talk feature that can be enabled through the end user device and voice-over-IP, there needs to be a mix of different capabilities and radios.

“Most of us still believe that you need flexible architectures, which include a mix of radios perhaps,” the industry source said.

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The nomination was received on Capitol Hill on Monday and referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee for consideration, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov.

Dodd — who puts out a newsletter called the “The DoddFather Diaries” about defense technology and innovation — is currently principal for the energy portfolio at the National Security Innovation Capital component of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit. Previously, he was university program director at DIU’s National Security Innovation Network and served for more than 11 years in the Marine Corps, according to his LinkedIn.

National Security Innovation Capital aims to accelerate the development of next-generation hardware technologies critical to U.S. national security and economic competitiveness. The organization awards Other Transaction agreements to vendors to enable “dual-use hardware startups to advance key milestones in their product development by addressing the shortfall of private investment from trusted sources,” and “circumvent adversarial capital,” according to its website.

Key focus areas include tech related to autonomy, communications, power, sensors and space.

The position of ASD for critical technologies was established in 2023 as part of a reorganization within the R&E directorate — which oversees the development of next-generation capabilities for the U.S. military — in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Maynard Holliday performed the duties of the position during the Biden administration but no one has ever been Senate-confirmed for the role.

Its responsibilities include establishing roadmaps to set the technical direction for the Defense Department and align industry, academia and international partners with DOD’s vision; identify and leverage “synergies” between critical technology areas “to amplify impact” for warfighters; raise the technical literacy of the workforce; keep a constant eye on the state-of-the-art; and recognize “the quickest route to critical technology, fast follow the commercial sector where appropriate, [and] take the lead when not,” according to the Pentagon.

The job holder has oversight of 11 principal directors focused on 5G; advanced computing and software, directed energy, human-machine interfaces, hypersonics, integrated network systems-of-systems, integrated sensing and cyber, microelectronics, renewable energy generation and storage, space, and AI and autonomy.

If confirmed, Dodd could end up working under Emil Michael, who Trump nominated to be the next undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. Michael — whose confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday — was previously a chief business officer at Uber, the ridesharing company, from 2013 to 2017. He has also been president of Technology Advisory and Consulting Services, chief operating officer of Klout, and special assistant to the secretary of defense.

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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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Communist China is especially dangerous because, unlike other adversaries, it is able to compete with and potentially surpass the United States economically. Many of my colleagues in Congress have appropriately pointed out the urgency with which the United States needs to modernize our economy with the most state-of-the-art technology, a key component of which is building out a robust 5G telecommunications infrastructure. Information flow is increasingly central to our highly digitized economy, and the importance of a modern, optimized 5G telecommunications network is vital. I agree with my colleagues that we need to dominate next-generation wireless technologies to stay ahead of our adversaries and advance strong economic growth. Economic power is military power — just ask the totalitarian adversaries the United States has left on the dust heap of history.

You will find no disagreement in the halls of Congress on the importance of building out America’s 5G infrastructure. Many are frustrated with the slow pace at which the Federal Communications Commission and Congress have been moving to restore spectrum auction authority and open up more spectrum bands for commercial use. Unfortunately, when it comes to how to reach that goal, some are willing to sell Department of Defense (DOD) capabilities for short term economic gain. This would be just as disastrous to our national security in the long run as not developing our 5G networks. 

Many of our military’s most important radar systems operate on the 3.1-3.45 gigahertz (GHz) band of the spectrum, referred to as the lower-3 band. These radars are essential to homeland defense missions and protecting our troops overseas. Right now, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are conducting missile defense missions off the coasts of the United States and protecting our deployed forces in the Red Sea against sophisticated Houthi missile and drone attacks. The Navy’s Aegis Combat System relies heavily on the lower-3 band, using radars to track threats and guide weapons to targets. Forcing the DOD to vacate or share those portions of the spectrum would cost taxpayers dearly — the Navy alone estimates that it would cost them $250 billion to migrate their systems to other bands of the spectrum, and that would take time we do not have with the looming threat of a belligerent Communist China.

Furthermore, on January 27, 2025, President Trump issued a potentially game changing Executive Order directing the DOD to develop and build an “Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield for America.” Before the Senate Armed Services Committee this month, General Guillot, the Commander of Northern Command charged with protecting our homeland, confirmed that NORTHCOM needs unfettered access to portions of the spectrum, and that any Iron Dome for America concept is dead on arrival if the DOD has to vacate the lower-3 band and other crucial portions of the spectrum. In short, the binary choice many in the telecommunications industry are lobbying Congress to make would kill President Trump’s Iron Dome for America and continue to leave the U.S. homeland exposed to an array of long-range strike threats ranging from intercontinental ballistic missiles to cruise missiles to hypersonic weapons. The American people should not accept this. I agree with President Trump’s vision, and therefore want to safeguard the DOD spectrum necessary for developing and deploying an Iron Dome for America, ranging from point defense up to a space-based layer.

Advocates for restricting DOD’s use of the lower-3 band or portions of the 7 and 8 GHz band of spectrum argue that Communist China has been willing to build out some of their 5G infrastructure on those bands. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can arbitrarily turn off or blow out commercial use and infrastructure of any portion of the spectrum whenever they want with no recourse for civilian users, and provide their military primacy in spectrum use. Certainly, that is not a situation the U.S. telecommunications industry is interested in.

The telecommunications industry should abandon its quest to restrict the DOD’s use of the lower-3 band or require it to share all or a portion of the band — a course of action which would materially damage the national security of the United States. The DOD has developed exquisite radars on this portion of the spectrum precisely because of the unique physics there which enable them to function so effectively. There is a reason the CCP is actively advocating that other countries around the world build out their 5G infrastructure on the lower-3 band. It is to limit the capabilities of our most capable radars.

The twofold path forward must be (1) an aggressive pursuit of spectrum sharing technology for use throughout the spectrum (not just the critical lower-3 band), and (2) a thorough and candid assessment of what portion, if any, of the 7 and 8 GHz band of spectrum can be auctioned off to industry without harming national security. From there, Congress can give the spectrum auction authority necessary. This should happen quickly as 5G expansion remains a priority.  

As the United States engages in this competition with Communist China with a renewed vigor under the Trump administration, it is imperative that we not trade national security for economic prosperity. Now is not the time to degrade our military capabilities, especially those capabilities needed to defend our homeland from attack. We never want to send our troops into a fair fight. We want to give them every possible advantage to prevail with minimum losses. That includes crucial bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. I look forward to working with my colleagues to find a solution to the ever-increasing demand for spectrum usage, while acknowledging our need to restrict certain portions for national security.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chair of the SASC Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, and also serves on the SASC Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities and the SASC Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

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The technology suite, dubbed Otter, was launched Jan. 14 via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the Navy said in a news release Friday.

The platform’s primary payload has “space-based maritime domain awareness capabilities.” The secondary payloads — an X-band transmitter and an LED on-orbit payload (LOOP) — will “help the government evaluate communication technologies and concepts of operations on future CubeSat missions,” according to the release.

The vehicle will be operated by Naval Postgraduate School faculty and students on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office, via the Mobile CubeSat Command and Control network.

NRO is one of the United States’ premier spy agencies when it comes using satellites for intelligence purposes. President Donald Trump has nominated Troy Meink, one of the office’s senior leaders, to serve as the next secretary of the Air Force.

“The NRO is always looking for innovative ways to advance our capabilities in space,” Aaron Weiner, director of the organization’s advanced systems and technology directorate, stated in the release. “This demonstrator … showcases the value in rapidly qualifying low-cost, commercial off-the-shelf hardware.”

New Zealand’s Defence Science and Technology organization is also a partner in the project.

The Otter effort comes as the Pentagon and intelligence community are embracing the concept of putting relatively inexpensive platforms and proliferated satellite architectures into LEO to improve resiliency and reduce latency, among other benefits. For example, the Space Development Agency is working to build out a massive constellation, known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), for data transport and missile tracking.

“One of the things we’re excited about when you look at taking satellite communications from [geostationary orbit] all the way down to LEO and not GEO, [is] you’re able to … decrease latency, increase throughput,” Mike Dean, director for command, control and communications infrastructure in the office of the DOD Chief Information Officer, said Thursday during a panel at the Potomac Officers Club’s annual Defense R&D Summit in Northern Virginia, noting that the Pentagon is about to kick off a new study focused on non-terrestrial networks and protocols.

The Navy is also looking to improve its SATCOM and networking capabilities.

“When you look at 5G and Navy, a big part of this becomes, what’s the base component? … And for us it’s about that high data rate, high speed, large bandwidth capability. So as you start to look at those applications that we’re working on in the future, what would that be when you’re looking at the afloat? It’s that satellite communications to improve the bandwidth and connectivity to our strike groups at sea. That’s huge,” Scott St. Pierre, the service’s director for enterprise networks and cybersecurity, said during Thursday’s panel.

“Afloat [command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting], long-range fires — those are big data capabilities that we need to move data fast. We want to get it up to the satellite, down to an analysis station, [and] back up to the satellite with the results of what we’re looking at,” he added.

The Otter technology, an experimental system that’s not currently part of the PWSA, is intended to “add sensors in the space layer to be able to see what’s going on in the water,” Wenschel Lan, interim chair of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Space Systems Academic Group, stated in Friday’s release. “It’s not just a camera, but a lot of different phenomenologies that you can sense from space to then help paint the picture of what’s going on.”

The X-band transmitter “is ideal for space communications optimized for data-intensive payloads,” according to the release.

The Otter project is also envisioned as a risk-reduction effort that could smooth the way for future Pentagon satellite programs and give personnel important know-how.

“We’re spending a small amount of money to buy down the risks so that when they actually do a full program of record, they’re not going into it blind,” Lan added, noting that the initiative will also give NPS students direct experience with space missions and make them “better prepared to serve as Space professionals in the Navy, throughout the DOD, and beyond.”

Otter isn’t NRO’s and NPS’ first rodeo when it comes to collaboration on satellite projects. Last year, they launched a CubeSat called Mola that also carried an X-band transmitter and LOOP technology, according to the release.

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The force, part of Marine Air Control Group 38, participated in Steel Knight 24, an exercise at Camp Pendleton, California, where they used a 5G system to remote into a AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar for its multifunction air operations center, which includes the air controllers and air defenders serving as the sensor to coordinate aircraft in the tactical battlespace. It must be expeditionary in case troops have to pick up and move.

That event was the culmination of nearly four years of work, in part, evaluating how the Marines can incorporate 5G into tactical formations.

Using capabilities provided by the Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity, the unit at Steel Knight sought to demonstrate the ability to keep the radar a significant distance away to prove they can keep the radar survivable — because once it’s turned on, it can be targeted by the enemy, along with any forces operating close by — and provide another means of transport to ensure data gets to the air ops center.

In the past, the control group was able to successfully remote into the radar via satellite communications, officials said, but now they’re demonstrating that can be done through the terrestrial layer with a high bandwidth communications system like a 5G radio.

Looking to the future

The Marine Corps is excited about what 5G capabilities can bring to the force. They promise to enhance concepts that the service and the larger Defense Department enterprise are pursuing.

For the Corps, 5G technologies are poised to bolster its “stand-in force” mentality — which requires forces to already be present in theater near the enemy before crisis or conflict breaks out — along with Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, which involves mobile, low-signature units that can operate in austere areas temporarily and move from location to location. All of this fits into the larger Force Design concept, an annually updated vision to modernize the Corps.

These are also all in concert with the DOD’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control concept, which envisions how systems across the entire battlespace from all the services and key international partners could be more effectively and holistically networked to provide the right data to commanders, faster.

Future operating environments will demand that forces be smaller, more dispersed, nimble and have low electromagnetic signatures. This means units must not have a lot of equipment, and communications gear needs to be intuitive — allowing them to move quickly to avoid being targeted and be resilient in the face of unforeseen technical difficulties or enemy jamming.

“When you go into an expeditionary environment, the rules change a little bit and [commercial off-the-shelf] hardware can certainly still be applicable. But when your focus is, in an EABO context, really flexible, [the] Marine Corp ethos of shoot, move and communicate, you have to be able to move quickly. Stand-in forces that are supposed to be small, highly mobile, lethal, self-sustaining, they need a network that can move with them and support that same type capability,” said Lt. Col. Benjamin Pimentel, who is on detail from the Combat Development and Integration directorate to the FutureG office within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, where he serves as the director of advanced component development and prototypes.

“We think that a 5G architecture, moving into 6G, can really help support that. Certainly not a silver bullet. There is no silver bullet, but we think it can be a larger part of DOD’s overarching concept of Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control,” he said in an interview.

Members of Control Group 38 explained that the technologies tested at Steel Knight could improve the way they operate if brought to fruition.

5G capabilities provide additional transport options for units that will likely be operating in denied environments, meaning if satellite communications are unavailable, this is one more path they can use.

They can also allow units to operate more dispersed — both from each other and assets such as radars that put units at risk given they are easily targetable — making them more mobile and easier to move equipment.

The radar “can be a significant distance away, but now we’re not going to have the dependency on the Marine to actually run that fire line a significant distance away. It makes picking up and moving more appetizing,” Maj Anthony Johnson, operations officer within the control group, said in an interview. “If we could have this capability right now, I think that what the value proposition for our service is that we can essentially have two teams instead of just one conglomerate of Marines in one location … You just put that in the perspective of command-and-control systems … The radar, you can stow it or you can emit, but as soon as you get the target quality tracks, you can pick up and move that radar while still having that air operation center remain in place. Or the inverse of that, the air operation center can displace while the radar is still in place and you won’t lose connectivity.”

Steel Knight also demonstrated the ability to use 5G to support autonomous platforms leveraging the high throughput of the network. This allowed the units to send full-motion video back that could be analyzed by algorithms to enable automatic object recognition, target detection and target tracking.

This was an important demonstration because the technology could eventually keep more Marines away from the front lines if they can rely on reliable sensors to provide the information they need rather than risking the lives and resources of humans.

“In a stand-in force context where I want to be lethal, mobile, lightweight and self-sustaining, if I can reduce the number of Marines that I need to send forward because … I can limit that number [of force protection capabilities] through autonomy, I don’t have to have Marines on posts all the time,” Pimentel said. “I can have them somewhat centralized, like a [quick reaction force], and when the autonomy cues me that there might be a threat based on what it’s looking for and you can deploy those [thereby] reducing the number of Marines on a stand-in force through manned-unmanned teaming, I think is the capability that you need in a high-speed network to support. 5G is able to do that.”

Hiding in plain sight

Using 5G technologies will also allow troops to digitally camouflage themselves against the enemy, according to officials, a key lesson coming from Ukraine’s war with Russia.

Unlike the post-9/11 conflicts against a technologically inferior enemy, future operations in the electromagnetic spectrum will be fraught. Any time a radio is pushed, a radar turned on, a digital device used, it emits a unique electronic signature within the spectrum. Advanced adversaries have spectrum analyzers to tell them what the device is and physically where it’s located on the battlefield, allowing them to either jam it or fire munitions on its position, potentially killing the troops in proximity.

Leveraging 5G capabilities, which are ubiquitous in most of the world — and with the right security protections in place — can allow units to literally hide in plain sight.

“If you get within 10 kilometers of the front, they [Ukrainians] use green gear or programs-of-record radios that have been provided to them by the United States or whatever they have organically to them. But in reading some interviews and some things on at a higher classification, using those radios can often put you at a disadvantage because they give off very specific waveforms. They [the Russians] know if someone is using it, that streams important person, target them immediately,” Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kelsen Epperson, space and propagation engineering officer with the control group, said in an interview. “Cellular is so ubiquitous, it’s proliferated, everybody has it, it’s everywhere, it’s hard to tell who’s who and who’s what.”

The Marine Corps is testing private 5G capabilities, meaning troops have to bring their own routers, as opposed to plugging into a foreign nation’s infrastructure, which, according to some, can be dangerous if it’s a non-permissive environment given the host nation has access and can easily intercept communications.

Within the EABO context, where forces will be operating in remote regions, they will absolutely have to bring their own equipment.

In the future, however, the Marines aren’t ruling out the possibility of leveraging host nation infrastructure if the right security protocols are put in place.

“In places where existing 5G networks are provided by the host nation, we think that there are ways that you can leverage that, and doing so in a secure manner is a large thrust within our office. The same way that when we go to other countries, there’s a road that’s already there, I’m going to drive on it. There’s a bridge that’s already there and it meets my requirement, drive over it. I’m not going to expend the resources to create my own bridge further across the water feature or build my own road if I don’t need to,” Pimental said. “Insofar as we can use [existing 5G] in a way that meets mission requirements with an operational security perspective, we absolutely want to do that.”

One example from Ukraine that officials described was how units were discovered by the Russians because they were using the same devices each time when attacking positions. The Russians eventually caught on.

The counter was to start provisioning SIM cards. Each time troops would walk into an operations center, they would drop their old SIM cards and pick up new ones with new numbers and country codes. This means they could use the same device but from a signature perspective, that device was never in the same place twice. As a result, neither side has interest in jamming those signals because they would then be jamming the ones that their forces are using as well. Marine Corps officials noted there is inherent survivability from hiding in plain sight.

Plugging into host infrastructure also helps with spectrum deconfliction, Pimentel noted. The spectrum is a finite resource and portions of it must be allocated for certain uses and frequencies. But if one is already a user within that existing infrastructure as opposed to bringing their own capability, they’re already licensed under that country’s laws and regulations, effectively sidestepping that process.

Training and resourcing

Officials acknowledged that especially in the private 5G context, there’s additional equipment that forces will need to procure, carry, set up and be trained on. But, over the long run, those technologies and others as part of overall commercial 5G are easier to use and maintain, which could lead to cost savings.

“The total cost of ownership argument is something that we try to focus on, because you can imagine an initial hardware purchase to run one of these networks could be higher versus a sustained program of record that’s already going,” Pimentel said. “However, I think when you consider the cost of a handset, the phone that you probably have with you right now, versus a tactical radio, there’s a significant price differential between those two.”

He noted that if the Corps begins to shift to leveraging more commercial devices for communication, such as 5G-enabled cellular devices, those are cheaper and more expendable than exquisite military radios.

“While you might look at initial price tag that was way more expensive, total cost of ownership is likely in the long run, cheaper. You may take a dip in the red to find yourself back in the black after a number of years once you’re in sustainment because, I’d argue, it’s never the initial purchase price that gets you, it’s the carrying cost that gets you over the lifetime of the program,” he said. A cellular device “is almost an expendable versus how expensive some of our other platforms are, then you start to shift more to the same type of attritable system mindset that the department is taking through large initiatives like Replicator.”

The adaptability of these networks makes them an attractive capability. Especially now that commercial providers have begun to enable direct to cell from satellite like iPhones’ new satellite communications SOS function, if cellular is unavailable.

“Global ubiquitous coverage is something DOD has always wanted, and commercial wireless is now starting to provide it,” Pimentel said. “If I’m only taking a phone forward and that’s what I’m paying for, plus the subscription costs and then the same back end services … that I was already paying for anyway, I think you can see a significant cost reduction.”

Taking advantage of this type of model also reduces training burdens. Most Marines today grew up using smartphones. They’re intuitive and don’t come with lengthy training manuals. That means less time and resources required in the training pipeline to get forces up to speed on exquisite systems.

“In the future, what we’re trying to demonstrate to the service, but also just the DOD writ large, is that Marines are capable, they’re eager to learn and they’re excited to employ something that is significantly more capable than what we currently have,” Johnson said.

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The review will launch as the Pentagon is moving to modernize its communications and data transport capabilities and implement warfighting concepts like Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control.

“We’re kicking off a study soon on non-terrestrial networking protocol. And I think that’s going to really allow us to take the scalability, the network management agility of 5G and really push that across a lot of our communications architecture,” Mike Dean, director for C3 infrastructure in the office of the DOD Chief Information Officer, said Thursday during a panel at the Potomac Officers Club’s annual Defense R&D Summit in Northern Virginia.

The NTN examination, which is slated to begin in a few weeks, will include officials from across the department as well as engagement with industry, according to Dean.

“It’s a kind of an internal look in the DOD, across the DoD, [with] a lot of stakeholders. And it’s both with industry and our DOD mil [departments] and agencies,” he told DefenseScoop at the conference. “We’re just trying to get a sense of where they are and where they’re headed, so we can set policy and resources.”

The Pentagon is pursuing new satellite systems, drones and other airborne platforms to help move data and better link U.S. military forces and key allies and partners.

The plan for the upcoming study is to “do industry engagement, bring those folks in, start saying, ‘What kind of capabilities do you have? What are you working on?’ So that we can look long term and say, ‘How do I set the requirements, how do I set the resources, and how do I set the architecture and policy?’” Dean remarked. “Because what we don’t want to do is be in a situation where we have Tetris, we have all these solutions coming in, and now we’re trying to mix and match. And having that framework in place allows us to do it quicker.”

DOD has a variety of initiatives underway that are expected to boost non-terrestrial networking. For example, the Space Development Agency is moving forward with plans to build out a massive constellation of hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture for data transport and missile tracking.

The Pentagon is also working to onboard new wireless tech with 5G and “FutureG” initiatives.

These efforts are intended to help the military communicate faster and manage data more effectively.

“One of the things we’re excited about when you look at taking satellite communications from [geostationary orbit] all the way down to LEO and not GEO, [is] you’re able to … decrease latency, increase throughput. And that’s the kind of advantage you [also] get from 5G. So we think if you pair those two, that’s going to be pretty powerful, particularly as you’re trying to track” forces that are forward deployed and keep up with “the pace of battle,” Dean said.

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