During a keynote address at the recent Billington Cybersecurity Summit, Defense Chief Information Officer (CIO) John Sherman announced that the Pentagon will assume control of the military’s 5G network program. As Defense One reports, the Department of Defense’s 5G network portfolio is currently being managed by the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.
“There are numerous pilots underway at various U.S. military installations,” stated Sherman. “We’re going to continue to build on that momentum. Open radio access networks, or ORAN, is a priority for us in the Department of Defense. It’s a priority for the administration to move past the closed stack to open stack technologies.”
Sherman noted that the DoD is responding to the National Defense Authorization Act, which requires the DoD to chart out a plan to integrate 5G across the military departments where possible. He added that the Pentagon’s cross-functional team will be led by Juan Ramirez, under the direction of Deputy CIO Frederick Morefield.
“There’s the operational uses for things like smart warehouses, maintenance, and healthcare. And there’s tactical 5G,” said Sherman. “Tactical 5G will be critical for [coordinated drone activities]. And so that’s a challenge we put to industry and to ourselves, to make sure we’re able to make that work on the battlefield as well.” The Pentagon staff will assume its new 5G duties starting on October 1.
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