The Department of Defense is undergoing myriad efforts to modernize its systems, information technology infrastructure and communications capabilities. Rishi Bhaskar, senior vice president and general manager at JMA Wireless, asserted that 5G and Open Radio Access Networks known as O-RAN will be a critical component of the Pentagon’s modernization push.
One monumental step toward modernization came with the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which allocated $54.2 billion in total funding to boost U.S. semiconductor research and development, manufacturing and workforce development. A portion of this funding is going directly toward “promoting and deploying wireless technologies that use open and interoperable radio access networks,” according to a White House statement.
“Part of the CHIPS Act was an allocation of funding for the Wireless Innovation Fund, and that’s headed up by the [National Telecommunications and Information Administration],” Bhaskar told Executive Mosaic’s Summer Myatt in a recent video interview. “The government has allocated $1.5 billion into the Wireless Innovation Fund to spur O-RAN R&D here at home in the United States.”
Beyond the CHIPS Act, the NTIA and the DOD have teamed up in the latest 5G challenge, which Bhaskar described as “an initiative that the Department put out in partnership with the NTIA to actually challenge the industry on innovating and driving O-RAN solutions here in the United States.”
The 2023 installment of the 5G challenge awarded a total of $7 million to high-performing 5G subsystems with multi-vendor interoperability.
“There’s been some pretty significant investment by the government, both from a policy perspective and a funding perspective to continue to spur O-RAN R&D here in the U.S.,” Bhaskar added.
Find out how else government agencies are driving 5G and O-RAN innovation — watch Rishi Bhaskar’s full video interview here.
