The Department of Defense has awarded $600 million in contracts to telecom companies for “large scale experimentation” of 5G technology at five military bases around the country.
“Today, the Department of Defense announced $600 million in awards for 5G experimentation and testing at five US military test sites, representing the largest full-scale 5G tests for dual-use applications in the world,” the Pentagon said in a statement, adding that it would bring together experts from several industries and disciplines.
Among the capabilities being tested is “distributed command and control” systems in order to “aid in Air, Space, and Cyberspace lethality,” enhancing communications for mobile command centers in combat scenarios.
Other capabilities being tested include piloting 5G-enabled augmented/virtual reality for mission planning and training, and testing 5G-enabled Smart Warehouses.
“Through these test sites, the [Defense Department] is leveraging its unique authorities to pursue bold innovation at a scale and scope unmatched anywhere else in the world,” Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Kratsios said in a statement.
The five military test sites chosen for experiments are: Hill Air Force Base, Utah; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Georgia; Naval Base San Diego, California; and Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, Nevada.
The fifteen entities awarded contracts include: GBL System Corp., AT&T, Oceus Networks, Booz Allen Hamilton, GE Research, Vectrus Mission Solutions Corporation, Deloitte Consulting, Federated Wireless, KPMG, Scientific Research Corporation, Nokia, General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc., Key Bridge Wireless, Shared Spectrum Company and Ericsson.
AT&T, Booz Allen Hamilton and GE Research were chosen to provide experimentation capabilities for projects at more than one of the sites.
Photo by Ruediger Hess via Wikimedia Commons