4 Startups Tapped to Pilot Capabilities at Defense’s 5G Living Lab

Keith J Finks/Shutterstock

At some U.S. military bases, next generation connectivity is right around the corner.

Four startups this week won $50K a piece and an opportunity to pilot and test out their technologies at the Marine Corps Air Station, or MCAS, Miramar’s 5G Living Lab in San Diego.

The chosen companies—COMSovereign, GenXComm, Omnispace, and vRotors—competed against nearly 50 total for the top spots through the National Security Innovation Network or NSIN’s Navy/USMC 5G Pitch Competition. That network is an organization within the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.

“All of the winners are developing technology that either will help the Marines establish and deploy secure 5G networks domestically and abroad, or uses the benefits of 5G networks to deliver new strategic capabilities to the war fighter,” NSIN’s Pacific South Regional Director Jesse Gipe explained.

In an email to Nextgov Thursday, Gipe and others involved shared details into what the selected players have to offer and what will come next.

Fifth-generation wireless technology is expected to introduce next-level connectivity and disrupt the world’s mobile landscape. In July, the Marine Corps and Verizon teamed up to launch the living lab as a testbed for the strategic exploration of 5G-enabled defense applications and use cases. The move marked the first time Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband service was deployed at a military base, though the company is also offering up capabilities for other federally-led experimental efforts to advance the burgeoning technology. 

Andrés Irlando, Verizon’s senior vice president and president of public sector and Verizon Connect, said leaders across the Pentagon fully grasp the mission-critical role the company’s 5G service “will play in unlocking innovation and technology for the military.”

The Pentagon is also steering separate test sites at five other military bases to push forward the United States’ defense-driven 5G pursuits. And Joey Clark, program manager of NSIN’s Starts program, through which the network executed the contest, noted the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s 5G program picked 12 Defense Department installations across the services to deploy and evaluate the next-generation networks.

“The Navy and Marine Corps have made firm in word and investment that finding and supporting 5G-enabled technologies are high priorities,” Clark said.

In all, NSIN, NavalX SoCal Tech Bridge and the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific were behind the prize competition. During a virtual event held by those entities Tuesday, 10 finalists presented their solutions to a panel of judges, and other keynotes and panels unfolded regarding the Pentagon’s 5G aims and strategy. 

Winners were unveiled Wednesday.

Of the startups, GenXComm produces advanced technologies for delivering spectrally efficient, ultra-low latency 5G networks and resilient coverage. The vRotors platform powers what Nextgov was told is a “suite of 4G/5G connected remotely piloted live drones and terrestrial visual sensors with telemetry driven mixed reality for facility and off-base situational awareness.” COMSovereign is an American-based technology provider for 5G end-to-end solutions, and Omnispace's hybrid pole-to-pole communications system essentially offers one interoperable network for 5G connectivity to be tapped by users and internet of things devices anywhere on the globe.

Now, the four winners are gearing up to demonstrate their technology at MSAC Miramar’s lab in February, according to USMC’s NavalX SoCal Tech Bridge Director Lt. Col. Brandon Newell.  

“Our Navy [research and development] colleagues will analyze each company’s demonstration in order to increase our understanding of the technology and the concepts of employment across the defense sector,” Newell said.

Ahead of the evaluations, the startups will work directly with Verizon and US Ignite, which Newell confirmed is the project manager running the 5G living lab pilots. That planning process between the top four and two entities will kick off next week. To Newell, the effort underscores the power of the collaborative market that the Defense Department and its subcomponents have built around 5G.  

“We have stripped away typical government bureaucracy and empowered the expertise of Verizon and US Ignite to both move forward effectively and expediently,” Newell said. “We are rapidly increasing our technical knowledge and application acumen to unlocking the future—all through collaboration!”  

NSIN’s Clark added that the network is “exploring additional opportunities to showcase more 5G technologies and engage DoD customers interested in developing additional pitch events.” And as for this go-around, he said “the high number of entries was not a surprise, because 5G is already a rapidly growing commercial ecosystem and the problem statements reflected areas of interest to the DoD that are of interest in the private sector as well.” 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.