U.S. DoD Awards Booz Allen Two Spots on $600M Contract for 5G Experimentation, Testing

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On October 8, the Department of Defense (DoD) selected Booz Allen Hamilton, among other companies, to fulfill $600 million in awards for 5G experimentation and testing at five U.S. military locations. This contract represents the largest full-scale 5G testing done to date for dual-use applications in the world and will help move DoD towards full-scale 5G military deployment.

At Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, Booz Allen will prototype and optimize the military utility of 5G-enabled augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) live training of an individual soldier all the way up to a full brigade training together in the field. Booz Allen will deliver an Army-owned prototype based on its state-of-the-art Digital Soldier offering that uses AR/VR technology to create extremely realistic virtual environments that provide performance-enhancing training for our nation’s soldiers. The offering also uses an open, yet secure architecture that quickly and easily integrates with the latest technologies to provide faster equipment upgrades. This project builds on a task order Booz Allen was awarded last year for up to $561 million to maximize soldiers’ performance on and off the battlefield.

At Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah, Booz Allen will address the challenge of enabling the Air Force’s airborne radar systems to dynamically share spectrum with 5G cellular services. Booz Allen will deliver an artificial intelligence (AI) spectrum sensing application as part of a prototype that will demonstrate a fieldable Spectrum Coexistence and Sharing (SCS) system. The AI spectrum sensing application is based on novel R.AI.DIO™ signal processing algorithms that implement radio frequency signal processing with machine learning techniques.

“Integrating 5G technology into our military’s warfighting capabilities is an ambitious and necessary endeavor to give the men and women of our armed forces the best training and equipment they need to succeed, and maintain the U.S.’s competitive advantage,” said Chris Christou, a Booz Allen Hamilton vice president of 5G and cloud security. “These projects build on Booz Allen’s proven expertise in helping the Department of Defense integrate breakthrough and complex technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality to support missions on and off the battlefield.”