Contract Extension Awarded for 5G Deployments
at bases in Washington
and Hawaii to Help DoD Evaluate 5G
Applications and LEO/GEO SATCOM Resiliency
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., March 18,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, EchoStar (Nasdaq:
SATS) announced the contract period of performance extension by the
Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Under Secretary of
Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) FutureG
Office, for the continued deployment of standalone 5G networks at
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) in Hawaii and at the Naval Air Station Whidbey
Island (NASWI) in Washington
State. The contract extension builds on the award for NASWI
in 2021 and additional expansion in Hawaii in 2022, extending both through 2025
with additional 5G enhancements. EchoStar is a premier supporter of
the use of Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) in DoD networks and
recently won a $50M NTIA grant to
build an ORAN test center.
Contract Extension Awarded for 5G
Deployments at bases in Washington
and Hawaii
"The award extension demonstrates the value of this multi-vendor
solution and follows the successful launch of the 5G network at
Naval Air Station Whidbey Island – the first 5G ORAN at a U.S. DoD
base," said Dr. Rajeev Gopal, vice
president, Advanced Programs, Hughes. "Together, the NASWI and
Hawaii site configurations
demonstrate the power of 5G standalone ORAN networks to support
increasingly automated base operations, securely and with the
resilience necessary to maintain information assurance in any
circumstance – holding tremendous promise for DoD
applications."
EchoStar subsidiary Hughes leads the deployments as the prime
contractor, integrating standards-based, best-of-breed components,
like radio access, edge cloud, and a packet processing core, with
Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) and seamless, global satellite
connectivity augmented by embedded Network Operations Capabilities
(NOC) and Security Operations Capabilities (SOC). The project is
using ORAN infrastructure and engineering expertise along with
EchoStar's 5G spectrum. There are transport routers, switches, and
firewalls from Cisco; computing infrastructure from Dell
Technologies; radio access network (RAN) from JMA Wireless; edge
cloud stack and Intel® Xeon® processors from Intel; and site survey
and network installation services from Boingo Wireless.
Rick Lober, vice president and
general manager, Hughes Defense, said: "The DoD's extension of the
5G award is a validation of the EchoStar bench of engineering
expertise and our ability to customize solutions using best
available technologies across terrestrial and non-terrestrial
systems. We are proud to join our industry partners in
architecting, deploying, and operating the prototype networks that
will set the foundation for 5G standalone ORAN and resilient
networks for the DoD going forward."
The initial NASWI deployment was completed with a ribbon-cutting
ceremony on March 30, 2023 to
commemorate the launch of the standalone 5G network. The deployment
improves aircraft readiness by enabling immediate, real-time
communication coordination across the flight line to reduce
maintenance time and decrease preparation time between
missions.
Both deployments are designed to support National Security
Agency (NSA) Commercial Solution for Classified (CSFC)
requirements. This contract extension comes under an Other
Transaction Agreement (OTA) issued through the Information Warfare
Research Project (IWRP) consortium as part of on-going 5G
experimentation led by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research
and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) FutureG Office.
To learn more about delivering secure communications, anytime,
anywhere, please visit the website.
About EchoStar
EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq: SATS) is
a premier provider of technology, networking services, television
entertainment and connectivity, offering consumer, enterprise,
operator and government solutions worldwide under its EchoStar®,
Boost Mobile®, Boost Infinite, Sling TV, DISH TV, Hughes®,
Hughesnet®, HughesON™, and JUPITER™ brands. In Europe, EchoStar operates under its EchoStar
Mobile Limited subsidiary and in Australia, the company operates as EchoStar
Global Australia. For more information, visit www.echostar.com and
follow EchoStar on X (Twitter) and LinkedIn.
©2024 EchoStar. Hughes, Hughesnet, DISH, Boost Mobile, and Boost
Infinite are registered trademarks of one or more affiliate
companies of EchoStar Corporation.
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SOURCE EchoStar Corporation