RTX to Provide Warfighters With 5G Connectivity Under Department of Defense Contract

The Department of Defense has awarded RTX a potential two-year, $6.6 million contract to develop multi-hop mobile ad-hoc networks that would provide 5G connectivity to forward-deployed warfighters.

RTX’s Opportunistic eXtemporarY 5G Encrypted Network capability is designed to connect at least 20 pieces of equipment using 5G sidelink technology. OXYGEN will include additional security layers and mesh networking on top of relay links to ensure that sensitive information can be transferred securely over commercial infrastructure.

The capability is expected to allow users to securely transmit data at 100 megabits per second.

The contract was awarded by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s FutureG and 5G Office, RTX said.

The contract award follows another network-related job order RTX received from a U.S. military branch.

In May, the U.S. Air Force tasked RTX, then known as Raytheon Technologies, to build an operational architecture for the Common Tactical Edge Network. CTEN is part of the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System that establishes an overlay network across domains, connecting disparate networks to facilitate data sharing and improve decision-making.