Bringing 5G to the Battlespace

Fast, reliable, and secure communications is essential to success in the battlespace. The advent of the telegraph was a central part of Civil War strategy and tactics. Introduction of the radio was just as important in World War I, while radar and sonar – other forms of conveying crucial information – played an important role in World War II.

Using 5G to facilitate communications in today’s combat settings is just as significant – perhaps more so, with the increased sophistication of encryption, the ability to equip weapons with electronic guidance and triggering capabilities, and the ability to empower troops to share intelligence. While “the fog of war” may not dissipate entirely, commanders in the field will have unsurpassed visibility of what is happening, not just in their own battlespace but across all the forces.

There are challenges to incorporating 5G. For instance, 5G networks must have state-of-the-art security and encryption, since they will be targets of cyber attacks, espionage and data breaches. Allocating the radio spectrum requires careful, efficient management. And integrating 5G into legacy systems requires that compatibility is a priority. Many of these issues are incorporated into planning for the Department of Defense’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC-2) initiative, to knit together communications across all services, weapons systems, and manpower, including allies and partners.

Learning Objectives:

• Outline the specific capabilities of 5G that make it crucial to future iterations of CJADC-2
• Review the impact of 5G, the first end-to-end wireless technology based on software defined networking to support the innovative programs that are planned to run on top of it within DoD
• Delineate the role of 5G within the CJADC-2 architecture
• Evaluate how to incorporate 5G into military capabilities in such a manner that it can evolve to 6G