Lockheed and Juniper partner on 5G routing technology for DOD

Touting the demonstration as an industry first, Lockheed Martin and Juniper Networks successfully tested routing technology that prioritizes the flow of critical information from contested environments to military commanders.

The “mission-aware” routing technology delivers the most important information to commanders first and withstands connectivity challenges in remote areas or jamming from adversaries, Lockheed announced today.

Since 5G is seen as a critical enabler of the Pentagon’s Joint All Domain Command and Control effort, there’s been a rise in industry collaborations and investment in 5G technologies.

“By combining our secure 5G.MIL technologies with Juniper’s industry-leading [software-defined wide-area network] solution and routing capabilities, Lockheed Martin is delivering resilient, intelligent communications that keep our customers ahead of evolving threats,” Dan Rice, vice president of 5G.MIL programs at Lockheed said in a statement.

In the demonstration, the companies connected Lockheed’s Dynamic Data Link Manager and Juniper’s Session Smart Routing to create a hybrid SD-WAN solution. Since it’s software-defined, SD-WAN creates a more resilient communications architecture if battle managers are faced with denied or degraded network conditions.

“The hybrid SD-WAN solution connects disparate tactical nodes and networks to form a decentralized, heterogenous network of networks with secure 5G and military data link connectivity,” the company said.

Lockheed and Juniper expect to expand this experimentation in future demonstrations from the lab to field exercises.