Army and Navy use 5G to arm ‘arder
The Spanish government’s Ministry of Defense has launched several tenders worth €50 million in total to install private 5G networks for the military, according to Spanish newspaper Expansión. Armies will be mobilised, ships will be become sensitive from fore to aft with all robotic hands on deck, while the air force will have its own channel for military emergencies.
The largest tender is for a project to build a testing and training centre to provide cyber defence training to the military. The second tender requires the launch of two private 5G standalone networks for two military facilities in Madrid. The Spanish navy is also seeking a portable private network communication system for two of its ships to reduce the dependence on satellite communications. Finally, the Spanish air force is also interested in setting up private networks for its hangars. The first call for tenders was expected to launch at the end of March 2023.
The Armed Forces are continuing with their digital transformation plan and have set their sights on the installation of 5G private networks with the launch of several tenders to launch projects of this type by the hand of telecommunications operators for around €50 million, according to Expansión.
The Ministry of Defense has launched tenders aimed at the three main branches of the Army for the installation of these networks, which provide cybersecurity and latency and a new avenue of income for the various actors in the telecommunications sector. The tenders have several common features, such as the use of the emergency procedure and the Recovery Plan funds.
Adif, the railway infrastructure manager, is another agency running 5G in a public sector area. It has already promoted several tenders and is evaluating offers for the largest 5G network tendered in Spain, with a contract of more than €100 million. Meanwhile the largest Armed Forces project under tender consists of the creation and use of a development, training and testing centre for military operations in cyber defence with 5G technology. This complex is being created with a €28.4 million budget divided into several lots, intended to create laboratories and simulation systems, according to Europa Press. The contract has an execution time of 36 months and the first offers will be opened at the end of the month.
Meanwhile the Spanish Army has also launched a contract for €5 million for the use of two 5G multiservice wireless networks in the barracks of San Cristóbal and Colmenar Viejo in Madrid. The Defence objective is to create two standalone 5G networks that provide service, among other facilities, to the battleship and helicopter maintenance centres that are on the premises. Another of the units interested in acquiring a deployable and high-capacity 5G private network is the Military Emergency Unit (UME), which has launched a process valued at €1.5 million.
Among the conditions of the specification, there is the provision of a minimum of 100 5G SA SIM cards, that the core of the network has the capacity to transmit at least 20 Gbps to the base stations. For its part, the Navy is bidding for €6million for the installation of a deployable and portable private network on one of its ships and a receiver system on another of them to reduce the dependence of this branch of the Army on satellite communications. The successful bidder must provide at least 20 terminals and 100 SIM cards to the Navy and connection for up to 1,000 devices. The project also contemplates the ‘sensorisation’ and robotisation of elements of the ships, as well as the establishment of 5G communications at the Naval Base of Rota and the establishment of 5G-based communications in a Third of Infantería de María.
Finally, the networks of the Air and Space Army will be used in logistics environments of hangars located at the Maestranza Aérea in Madrid and at the one in Albacete. In this case, Defensa will pay around €2 million euros for the installation of a private and secure network that allows coverage of an area of about 25,000 square meters with capacity for a 1Gbps connection with between 25 and 35 milliseconds of latency with up to 1,000 connected devices.