Viasat President: “5G has the potential to improve the warfighter’s ability to produce and make sense of critical data”

Viasat received a four-year research grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) to conduct 5G experiments in support of United States Marine Corps operations and broader command and control applications.

The first phase of the prize is said to be worth around $10 million, with additional phases expected. The California-based company, which has a history with the US military, having previously supplied it with satellite and networking capabilities, secured the deal through the Information Warfare Research Project, a consortium that links industry and academia to develop technology for naval use. and Marine Corps.

Viasat will explore how 5G and other advanced technologies can support Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, or EABO. These operations include such things as long-range sniping, refueling, rearming, surveillance and reconnaissance.

In a statement, Viasat Government Systems President Craig Miller commented on the “significant potential of 5G to enhance the warfighter’s ability to produce, consume and make sense of mission critical data.

“The ability to move information and data rapidly across the battlespace is essential for the needs of multi-domain and joint operations of the future,” he said. “The addition of 5G bandwidth and network management capabilities will support C2 for specific missions and greater visibility into highly dispersed forces in EABO and littoral operations in contested environments.”

The U.S. government is making many efforts to explore 5G and its role in everything from smarter military warehouses and logistics to military communications. Last year, for example, Verizon partnered with aerospace, weapons, defense, information security and technology company Lockheed Martin to prototype, demonstrate and test 5G.MIL technologies at use by the DoD. Lockheed Martin’s 5G.MIL solutions integrate military communications with tactical gateway capabilities (“.MIL”) and 5G technology, delivering “fast, decisive action on the battlefield,” according to the company.