Pentagon Chief Information Officer John Sherman said the Pentagon’s Chief Information Office will soon take over all 5G network efforts starting October 1.
“We have a large number of pilots operating at various U.S. military installations, and we will continue to build on that momentum,” Sherman said in his keynote address at Thursday’s Billington Cybersecurity Summit.
The Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering has previously been responsible for the Department of Defense’s 5G network portfolio. Under the CIO, the company plans to end some pilot programs, develop others and launch new initiatives in a variety of areas, he said. New initiatives include Open Radio Access Networks (ORAN), which allows mobile and enterprise devices and applications to link to the network over the air.
“Open Radio Access Networks (ORAN) are a top priority for the Department of Defense. Moving beyond closed stacks to open stack technologies is a priority for the administration,” Sherman said.
In a recent defense policy bill, Congress requires the Department of Defense to transfer 5G efforts to the CIO and for the Secretary of Defense to set a date for deploying 5G wireless broadband infrastructure to all military installations. . The National Defense Authorization Act of 2023 also requires the Department of Defense to develop a plan to integrate 5G across military branches, where applicable.
And as 5G networks are rolled out across Defense Department bases, posts and facilities, cybersecurity is essential, Sherman said.
“There are operational applications like smart warehousing, maintenance, and healthcare. And then there’s tactical 5G,” Sherman said. The latter will be critical to other Pentagon efforts, such as the Replicator program, which will command thousands of unmanned aircraft over the next two years.
“Tactical 5G is essential to that, so this is a challenge we set on the industry and ourselves to make sure it works on the battlefield,” Sherman said.
Juan Ramirez will lead the Pentagon’s 5G cross-functional team overseeing this effort, reporting to Deputy CIO Frederick Moorefield, he said.
