Lockheed Martin and AT&T have made news by increasing the speed at which data is transferred securely and rapidly from an aircraft. The Black Hawk helicopter sent health and data usage over an AT&T 5G private cellular network. They used Lockheed Martin’s 5G.MIL® multi-site pilot network in this test, which was conducted Aug. 4 at Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky headquarters in Stratford, Connecticut.
The test demonstrated that wireless 5G technologies can not only be used successfully in flight, but they can support accelerated maintenance operations and improved aircraft readiness. It also proved highly secure interoperability between the AT&T millimeter wave 5G private cellular network and the 5G.MIL pilot network.
“These 5G capabilities deployed at scale are expected to enable high-speed, secure-data transfer on virtually any flight line, providing another example of how we’re advancing our 21st Century Security vision by improving customer readiness and operations,” said Dan Rice, vice president of 5G.MIL Programs at Lockheed Martin. “In collaboration with commercial 5G leaders, an interoperable 5G.MIL multi-site, multi-vendor network is another step closer to reality.”
Using the AT&T 5G millimeter wave private cellular network, data was transferred wirelessly to the 5G.MIL network. It did so via ground support equipment from the Black Hawk’s Integrated Vehicle Health Management System (IVHMS). Once received at local Sikorsky networks, the data was then processed and distributed through the secure Lockheed Martin 5G.MIL pilot network to the Waterton, Colorado, 5G test range site.
This transfer process normally takes Black Hawk crews about 30 minutes. That involves removing the IVHMS data cartridge from the helicopter, transporting it to an operations center and extracting the data for analysis. With the backbone of AT&T’s 5G private cellular technologies, Lockheed Martin was able to reduce the time required to less than 5 minutes!
“Timely and secure transfer and analysis of mission and operations data are critical to military readiness and effectiveness,” said Lance Spencer, client executive vice president, Defense, AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet. “This is one of many areas of commercial 5G innovation we are exploring to support defense, commercial aviation, and related fields where our 5G-related services can modernize legacy processes and help deliver truly transformational benefits.”
This is not the only project Lockheed Martin and AT&T are working on. They are also collaborating with other leading companies in networking and defense to modernize and transform communications capabilities for defense purposes. Additional demos will be performed in the future, which will hopefully enhance 5G wireless technology communications solutions for flight lines. Ideally, the goal would be to continually shorten aircraft turnaround times to reduce costs and improve military operational readiness. These capabilities deployed at scale can support high-speed, secure-data transfer on both commercial and military flight lines.