While the Pentagon’s FutureG office is studying how to provide soldiers with always-on 5G communications solutions, it is also conducting applied research on new technologies that will serve as the basis for the department’s access to future generations of cellular capabilities.

The office, which is responsible for research and development in advanced wireless networks, has three projects underway in its “Beyond 5G” portfolio that it plans to implement at least through fiscal year 2025. Together, the programs aim to improve the Pentagon’s ability to network and maneuver within the electromagnetic spectrum, Tom Rondeau, principal director of FutureG at the Pentagon, told DefenseScoop.

“We have easier access to the spectrum than ever before, and that access is only getting greater. So our ability to maneuver within the spectrum from a single system is only getting better,” Rondeau said in a recent interview on the sidelines of the NDIA’s Emerging Technologies for Defense conference and exhibition.

Future generations of wireless communications will use higher frequencies in the spectrum than their predecessors and therefore offer faster, lower-latency connections than 5G and others. The technology is also expected to be highly scalable, allowing devices to use multiple connections simultaneously – that is, they can stay online even if one network source is interrupted or disrupted.

The Beyond 5G portfolio focuses largely on research and development to leverage these advances for military applications. The Office of the Secretary of Defense requested $55.1 million in fiscal year 2024 to fund the portfolio’s work – including the three applied research projects.

One of those efforts is to develop an unlimited software-defined radio that is not bound by hardware and architectural and implementation limitations of previous generations. This feature will allow users to use any part of the spectrum with any waveform, improving overall spectrum management capabilities, Rondeau said.

“Spectrum is maneuver space, and we need to be able to leverage that,” he said. “We still think about spectrum and warfare in terms of ‘what channel are you on?’ … We really need to be flexible and maneuverable in all of that.”

Once soldiers have access to more spectrum, they will need to be able to easily navigate the network without worrying about whether or not they are on the right communication channel. Rondeau explained that another research project – Hyperdimensional Software-Defined Networks – will enable autonomous optimization of wireless network operations to solve this problem.

“The network has to tell the system what to do,” he said, adding that the technology “is not going to understand what your radio needs to do, but what everyone needs to do. And how do I look at that given the different physical access we have and the geometries of your site?”

It is a multi-dimensional problem that requires the FutureG office to address how to optimize both terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks across multiple domains simultaneously, he noted.

During a panel discussion at the NDIA conference, Rondeau emphasized that non-terrestrial networks – including satellite constellations and airborne platforms – are critical to providing soldiers with ubiquitous, secure and instantaneous communications capabilities even in challenging environments.

“It’s not just about satellite constellations, it’s not just about the common (low-Earth) concepts – it’s about all the layers above us,” Rondeau said. “It could be (unmanned aerial vehicles) that enable these systems, or high-altitude platforms and balloons that could be used as subsystems for pLEO up into (geosynchronous orbits) as part of our hybrid access to infrastructure.”

The third research project currently underway in the FutureG office is looking at further developing the Mobile Internet Protocol so that new systems can be integrated into the rest of the network, Rondeau told DefenseScoop.

Traditional Internet protocols were designed for older devices that need to be connected in fixed locations, such as computers. Even cell phones that move around in different coverage areas are connected to a central cellular network that manages a device’s connection, he explained.

Therefore, the FutureG office is trying to “understand the next generation of Internet protocols, which are fundamentally based on mobility,” and also how they should be managed, Rondeau said.

Overall, the three projects represent a difficult engineering challenge for the FutureG office, particularly given the prospect of scaling capabilities across the Department of Defense.

“When you talk about what waveform you’re using, what frequency you’re using (and) what the power consumption is, … when you’re trying to optimize all of those at the same time, those are actually competing objectives,” he explained. “Then, when you’re trying to do that in the future for multiple – maybe hundreds of thousands – radio systems all deployed on the battlefield, you’re now trying to plan who gets what and when, what resources are going to go where, and all of those things.”

Another challenge is the unstable budget environment that has plagued the Defense Department and other federal agencies in recent years, as well as the lack of transparency from the White House and Congress regarding potential funding cuts, he said. Uncertainty in budget decisions could lead the FutureG office to be more conservative in how it spends funds, which in turn could hinder the continued development and deployment of new technologies, he added.

In the OSD’s fiscal year 2025 budget request, the Beyond 5G portfolio would receive $38.5 million – $16.6 million less than the previous year. According to budget documents, the decrease was due to “a targeted reduction made to meet DOD’s overall funding goals.”

If lawmakers approve the 2025 funding, it would go toward further development of the office’s ongoing programs and include new projects focused on controversial logistics, open-source software solutions and cross-site FutureG experiments, the documents say.

“If they cut my budget, let me know. Don’t surprise us. And if it’s not possible to increase the budget again, at least I have time to plan properly,” Rondeau said. “That level of uncertainty is holding us back from really making room for the innovation I need.”