In September, Lockheed Martin and Verizon completed the second demonstration of 5G-enabled drones at a test range in Waterton, Colorado. Breaking Defense reported the trial showcases how drones can “transfer intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data from aircraft in flight to geolocate military targets.”
According to a release, the demonstrations utilized four 5G-enabled rotary-wing drones, which flew simulated missions while linked to two Verizon on-site private network nodes. The nodes securely transferred the ISR data from the drones to a 5G private network and a surrogate public network.
Lockheed and Verizon completed the first drone test in May on a stationary ground target. Lockheed and Verizon tested the same capabilities on moving targets in this latest round, including streaming video transmitted to a livestream feed. Breaking Defense reported the companies’ plan to run the third demo in November.
According to Dan Rice, vice president of 5G.MIL programs at Lockheed Martin, the experiment demonstrates 5G advancements and how customers will “be able to move seamlessly between those private networks and public networks while securing the data.”
Breaking Defense reported the tests are part of the ongoing collaboration between Lockheed and Verizon, not tied to official Defense Department missions. Also, no Department of Defense contracts are yet in place.
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