The Defense Department will hold an online industry day for interested vendors May 7, issue a Request for Prototype Proposals in early June, and award contracts by mid-September, said Thomas Rondeau, the Pentagon’s director for “FutureG.”
breakingdefense.com
The military is particularly interested in transmitting data to and from what’s called the “
tactical edge,” where frontline troops, unmanned vehicles and all sorts of sensors operate far beyond fixed infrastructure like cell towers or cloud-computing data farms. That’s not only a harsh environment, but
a rapidly changing one, with each side constantly adapting its technology and seeking new weak points in the enemy’s, as combat experience in
Ukraine has shown.
“As we watch the contested spectrum fight unfold in Ukraine, it’s teaching us a lot about the need for innovation,” he said Wednesday. “Rapid innovation and agility on the battlefield is required today to fight and win wars — and you can’t do that in the closed boxes, in the big bulky box that we have today. We’ve got to break that open.”
“We‘ve got to… enable the tactical edge by enabling solutions to be developed and fielded at a much faster pace,” he said.
