US Army special operators test 5G and Wi-Fi 6e device for dismounted troops

The US Army has been testing a small-form-factor, wearable device to provide soldiers with 5G and Wi-Fi 6e connectivity as part of its effort to improve communication for dismounted troops. Trials with the Personal Transport 5 (PT5) solution involved the branch’s special operators and have been conducted for around 10 months in diverse locations worldwide.

Supplied by Persistent Systems, PT5 was engineered to simultaneously and continually deliver connectivity even in contested and congested EW scenarios.

Speaking to Shephard, Ryan Kowalske, VP of business development at Persistent Systems, stressed that the device allowed secure communication even in challenging environments, exempting the use of “3U VPX racks and big servers”, as well as “multiple routers to operate radios”.

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“A lot of these technologies required tens, if not hundreds, of network engineers to go down range or to be collocated with these officers to reconfigure the devices as they have a different transport,” Kowalske noted. “It is now seamless to the end user when using PT5.”

This 2in x 0.5in x 1in (5cm x 1.2cm x 2.5cm) product was designed to be deployed as an accessory for the company’s handheld MPU5 MANET networking device, as well as to facilitate Persistent’s over-the-horizon Cloud Relay networking technology.

In terms of security, PT5 uses two independent layers of accredited encryption to enable data to safely traverse foreign host-nation cellular networks.

Cloud Relay, in turn, automates the establishment of Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) VPNs and protects data end-to-end with Media Access Control Security (MACsec).

The PT5 also allows for two Wi-Fi 6e access points creating a wireless personal area network on the soldier for contacting third-party Wi-Fi devices such as computers, sensors and cameras.

Its Wi-Fi access points run on two frequency bands providing, at the same time, compatibility with legacy 2.4 GHz devices and 5 GHz and 6 GHz Wi-Fi 6e devices.

Trials to start soon

The Personal Transport 5 will be first showcased to the general market at the 2025 Shot Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, held from 21-24 January 2025.

Its development was sponsored by the US government and pre-production devices have been tested by the army and other units within the national administration such as the Department of Energy.

“We put out hundreds of these units in a beta version under this US government contract to receive feedback in real-time from all of these customers,” Kowalske remarked. “Everybody is super excited, both from no longer needing to carry all of these different cables and connecting everything in but also for that back-off capability.”

Kowalske stressed that there are other trials with the PT5 scheduled for this year with other law enforcement and military organisations. One of those tests will be during the Project Convergence Capstone 5 (PC-C5).

Connectivity concerns continue

Enhancing the connectivity for dismounted teams has been a concern for the US Army as the implementation of the Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) progresses.

The Futures Command Network Cross-Functional Team (NET CFT) has been working on several efforts to improve communication capabilities for soldiers. It includes the development of portable devices, improved situational awareness tools and resilient network architectures.

The Net CFT is also responsible for creating and maintaining the Integrated Tactical Network (ITN), which is the overarching network infrastructure aimed at connecting all soldiers, including those dismounted, across the battlefield.

The Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center is another unit focused on this domain.

DEVCOM C5ISR has been developing diverse on-the-move sensors and technologies such as charging devices, enhanced audio and visual wireless solutions and a dismounted distributed tactical beamforming system to provide affordable communications capabilities for dismounted soldiers.