WASHINGTON - The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering (OUSD (R&E)) announced the awards of the Tranche 1 5G prototypes, on October 8, to be hosted at Naval Base San Diego, California and at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Georgia.

These awards are a major milestone towards modernization of infrastructure and operations for the Department of Navy (DON).

The DON Chief Information Office, Headquarters Marine Corps, and the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare have worked in concert with the OUSD (R&E) to carefully select sites, experiments, and operational use cases that support broader DON initiatives to digitize, automate, orchestrate, and optimize operations for increased readiness and efficiency. To the DON, the value of these at-scale experiments is incalculable to assessing the feasibility, utility, and affordability of 5G.

To execute this vision cohesively across the DON, the DON 5G Integrated Product Team (IPT) under DON CIO is being chartered to institutionalize 5G across the DON and ensure that senior leaders, operational authorities, technical authorities, and the cross-functional community of acquisition, systems engineering, and cybersecurity are unified.

The DON 5G Champions leading the execution of these experiments are:

• Mr. Aaron Weis (DON CIO)
• Mr. Mike Galbraith (DON CDIO)
• U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General Lorna Mahlock
• U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Susan BryerJoyner

Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific, and NIWC Atlantic are providing technical leadership and project management across both experiments and to the DON 5G IPT.

The DON vision for 5G is far reaching. These at-scale experiments are a critical part of a larger effort that includes policy, strategy integration, operations and IT modernization in both enterprise and tactical applications. As the OUSD (R&E) portfolio expands to new sites and experiments, the DON will be ready to execute and accelerate.

For the Press:

• Please refer questions about the OUSD R&E 5G-NextG Initiative to (OUSD PAO, CDR Joshua Frey, joshua.a.frey8.mil@mail.mil)
• Please refer questions about DON CIO 5G vision and strategy to (Navy News Desk, LCDR Patricia Kreuzberger, patricia.kreuzberger@navy.mil)
• Please refer questions about the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany prototype to (MARCORLOGCOM PAO Chris Shaw, Christopher.d.shaw@usmc.mil)
• Please refer questions about the Naval Base San Diego prototype to (NBSD PAO - Krishna "Krash" Jackson; krishna.m.jackson1@navy.mil)