CHAPTER 3: DoD DEVELOPMENT AND ADOPTION OF 5G TECHNOLOGY
5G Impact on DoD
While much of the discussion around 5G revolves around the commercial sector as the driving force behind its rollout, 5G ecosystems of technology can equally revolutionize DoD operations, networks, and information processes. DoD must be able to communicate, engage, and operate faster to keep up with the changing environment. 5G will enable this new concept of operations, allowing larger volumes of data to be shared in close to real time across geographically dispersed systems. Currently, data sharing at that scale cannot be completed effectively with legacy communication networks. Existing networks will benefit by leveraging lower latency and higher capacity data transfer capability, but 5G’s true potential will be in its impact on the battle network of the future. That network will increasingly include a large number of cheaper, more connected, and more resilient systems to function in a rapidly evolving battlefield.
5G has the capability to combine DoD’s current fragmented networks into a single network to promote improved situational awareness and decision-making. This expanded reach will enable new technologies like hypersonic weapons and hypersonic defenses to be deployed, and has the potential to strengthen existing missions like nuclear C3. At an enterprise level, 5G can vastly improve day-to-day tasks such as logistics and maintenance, elevating the efficiency and speed of work across DoD.
However, 5G also presents a serious potential risk for DoD going forward. When operating overseas in the future, the vast majority of these networks and systems may depend on 5G infrastructure. If China leads the field in 5G infrastructure and systems, then the future 5G ecosystem will likely have Chinese components embedded throughout. This would pose a serious threat to the security of DoD operations and networks going forward. Additionally, the growth in the number of connected devices increases the potential “attack surface” for adversaries to target across DoD networks, which will require increased vigilance and security across systems. The larger volume of data being transferred will complicate this task, as it will make it more difficult to detect malicious traffic on a network.
Pivot to Sub-6 GHz
The United States may choose to continue down the path of mmWave, but the rest of the world is focused on building out sub-6 infrastructure, with China in the lead. As a government entity that operates overseas, DoD will ultimately have to learn to operate on that sub-6 infrastructure, regardless of how the United States chooses to implement 5G domestically. For this reason, the United States must invest in sub-6 capabilities and take steps to share its spectrum. However, there are legitimate concerns within DoD that opening up sub-6 spectrum will create a number of operational issues, from spectrum optimization to security vulnerabilities. If DoD operators are forced to share their bands of the spectrum, there are concerns that this may temporarily or permanently reduce the performance of systems. The addition of commercial users would also increase the overall congestion of the sub-6 spectrum, increasing the risk of connectivity interruptions for DoD operators.
