How Two U.S. Military Bases Are Exploring 5G’s Potential

greenbutterfly/Shutterstock

Defense Department-led pursuits of next-generation connectivity will hone in on survivability, security, and innovation.

The Defense Department’s fresh effort to produce future-facing testbeds for strategic 5G experimentation spanning more than 10 military bases is beginning to unfold—and officials at the forefront of work on two of those sites illuminated what early applications will look like on the ground.

“5G is coming, no matter what we do,” Jody Little, executive program manager of Joint Base San Antonio’s 5G NextGen work, told Nextgov during a recent webcast. “We have to have these things working—both on a secure level and on an operational level.”

The Pentagon’s big plans for 5G came to light last year, when the agency revealed its ambitious intent to pilot, prototype and explore next-generation wireless technology at specific military installations that make sense for its development. In October 2019, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Hill AFB, Naval Base San Diego and Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany were named as the department’s “Tranche 1 testbeds for 5G capabilities,” and Nellis Air Force Base was added to that group months later, in May. Seven new locations—Naval Station Norfolk, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Fort Hood, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Tinker Air Force Base, and Joint Base San Antonio—were unveiled as Tranche 2 testbeds after that.

Projects on the 12 bases are set to encompass 5G-enabled smart warehouses, augmented and virtual reality, radar—and much more. A further expansion is expected, and the department dished out $600 million to 15 contractors in October to kick off efforts at those five “Tranche 1” sites.

“Here at Nellis, we're looking to develop a 5G range to aid the survivability of our air and cyberspace forces,” the USAF Warfare Center’s Director of Plans and Integration/Future Capabilities Col. Mike Driscoll told Nextgov during the panel. 

Through the work, an initially fixed—then mobile—5G environment will be provided with help from AT&T. Driscoll explained that the branch’s air operations centers are generally fixed structures filled with hundreds of personnel who serve many important functions. The centers are crucial—but also “easily targetable,” Driscoll noted. Over the course of the pilot, officials aim to separate out and disperse those teams throughout the relevant area of responsibility, to make it a little tougher for adversaries to stop them than when they’re all in one place. From there, Driscoll said the plan is to “fuse all these warfighters that are dispersed with some kind of a cloud connected by 5G, to where we take sensors, and feed that cloud with targetable solutions—so we're always a step ahead of the enemy, and with a faster kill chain.”

Testing at Nellis is set to start in January and roll out over three 12-month phases. Next-level connectivity will first come from an initially fixed structure of a core command post and two trucks with towers enabling 5G connection. Down the line, those will be taken on the road throughout Nellis’ test and training range, which Driscoll said spans thousands of square miles.

He offered a modern metaphor to help listeners visualize the ultimate aim. 

“So, when I was a kid, I used to have to go to the arcade room to play a certain video game and dump a lot of quarters into that—but it always had to be at the arcade room. Now, kids are playing Fortnite. It could be on an iPad, it could be on an Xbox, it could be on a PlayStation—and no matter where they go, if they have a wireless connection, … they’re fighting in a virtual battlespace,” he said. “We're trying to replicate the environment my kids are fighting in, but applicate that into air and cyberspace. And we have one of the world's largest test ranges here at Nellis, where we're looking to develop that technology.”

As part of the second tranche of exploration, Joint Base San Antonio’s experimentation will focus on two distinct areas: augmented reality in support of maintenance and training, and the creation of the department’s 5G core security experimentation network.

“The core is the brains and the heart of 5G. It's a big part of what brings the ultra-low latency, and massive movement of data, etc. to the table under 5G,” JBSA’s Little said. “So, we're looking at running multiple cores.”

In doing so, insiders will explore the interoperability between those cores, technologies to secure them at different levels, and how slicing will work. They’ll also run an extensive vulnerabilities analysis of the cores, with a view from end to end.  

Little added that the base’s telemedicine-centered experiments have “a lot of potential to save lives.” 

Mobile medics are deployed in some of the world’s most dangerous places to treat wounded and injured soldiers, and the Pentagon sees 5G’s potential to help get advanced medical expertise out into those environments to support them when they need it most. Little added that the effort will also consider how medical robots could assist deployed troops, and the potential fifth generation connectivity could hold for telemedicine, and telesurgery. He highlighted the power of using augmented reality that overlays critical medical information in treatment. 

“For example, I'm looking at a patient and I can see where they've done an MRI of his brain, and I can see the brain as if I'm looking through him, or his chest or other parts of the body,” Little said.

Both officials emphasized that collaboration is central to the ongoing work. “We've been running a 5G steering group here for seven, eight months now,” Little noted. The base has already brought in a range of telemedical and communications players, as well as systems developers, to share information back and forth about initiatives.

“We've got to step outside just the Air Force-centric view of what this means,” Driscoll added. “So we're reaching across to the Navy and to the Army, to ensure that our systems can talk to each other.” 

The Pentagon aims for installations to collectively result in leap-ahead 5G capabilities that’ll enable the U.S. to outpace its challengers, but the panelists said there’s still a lot of learning to go. 

“[In this] country there's a few people—and I mean a few, there's not a lot—that understand what a 5G architecture is, how to optimize it, and what to do with it. And that's got to grow,” Little said. “I think you're going to see the educational side of this pick up fairly significantly in the future.” 

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.