Space-based 5G may help U.S. military forces operate anywhere, disperse tactical operations centers, and resist adversary interference — but spectrum access and cybersecurity remain significant obstacles, according to a “5G in Space” panel at SATELLITE 2022.
The DoD’s “Operate Through” initiative seeks industry solutions allowing military forces to use different networks for 5G across four environments: friendly U.S. infrastructure, coalition partner infrastructure, “gray zone” networks controlled by potentially hostile organizations, and fully contested areas.
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Daniel Massey, program lead in the Directorate of Defense Research and Engineering, stressed that soldiers want connectivity: “That soldier in the field, that 19-year-old, is not used to being away from their phone for more than an hour so we want to make sure we have access to that connectivity in a terrestrial or non-terrestrial way.”
Rajeev Gopal of Hughes said software is the key to spectrum sharing: “If you look at it from a software perspective, most of the satellites, most of these towers, we know their position, even if they’re moving so you can put the routes in software so you can positively share the spectrum without interfering.”
Don Claussen of Intelsat General said success requires “making sure you can roam, whether it’s a terrestrial network into a space-based network into somebody else’s space-based network, across bands, across orbits.” U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey stressed that voice capability remains paramount at the tactical edge: “When you have troops in contact, they depend heavily on the radio that’s on their hip.” VS
