The Senate Armed Services Committee’s mark of the next defense policy bill includes a proposal to establish a 5G technology demonstration facility at the Nevada Test and Training Range.
Lawmakers included the directive in their proposal for the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which urged the defense secretary to establish a total of two installations to “explore and demonstrate the utility of using fifth-generation wireless networking technology to enhance combat operations.”
The directive was included with the full text of SASC’s $750 billion NDAA proposal released Wednesday.
Under the provision, the defense secretary would have one year to establish 5G network components and capabilities at the Nevada Test and Training Range, which would serve as the Pentagon’s Major Range and Test Facility Base for 5G networking.
The test facility would be used to demonstrate military use future high bandwidth, scalable and low latency 5G technology, the interoperability of these capabilities and new tools for dynamic spectrum sharing and network isolation.
Pentagon officials are also tasked with setting up a 5G test facility at a second installation that would be focused on implementation of 5G infrastructure.
The second site would also look at applications for 5G technology, specifically for virtualized training environments, IoT devices, autonomous systems and advanced manufacturing.
SASC passed its mark of the FY ’20 NDAA on May 22 (Defense Daily, May 23).