Keysight Technologies, Inc., a leading 5G solutions provider, and Lockheed Martin, a global security and aerospace company, have joined forces to advance 5G technology in support of mission-critical communications for the aerospace and defense industries.

Keysight Technologies and Lockheed Martin announced today that they are actively collaborating on the 5G.MIL™ testbed, which the Lockheed Martin team will use to enhance 5G capabilities for multiple applications.

“Lockheed Martin is leveraging its commercial sector expertise to rapidly and economically scale, adapt and integrate 5G technologies across mission-critical operations in land, sea, air, space and cyber domains,” said Dan Rice, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s 5G.MIL program. “Keysight’s widely used commercial end-to-end 5G test platform provides the opportunity to develop customized solutions that meet the defense industry’s stringent requirements.”

5G brings high data rates, connection density, reliability, and low latency to wireless communications networks.

This collaboration advances Lockheed Martin's 5G.MIL vision to support secure and resilient connectivity for defense and national security applications.

Additionally, this collaboration aims to meet the tactical communications requirements of ground and non-ground networks operated by the Department of Defense by applying commercial 5G technology.

Lockheed Martin is working with Keysight on automated test cases to assess the cybersecurity and vulnerabilities of all 5G components and interfaces, enabling rapid development. It can also determine the cyber resilience of 5G-enabled solutions throughout their lifecycle, leading to operational success.

“Building future-proof, seamless and secure communications links for operations across land, sea and air hinges on the successful integration of 5G, satellites, drones, artificial intelligence and cloud technologies,” said Vince Nguyen, general manager of Keysight’s Aerospace, Defense and Government Solutions business. “Lockheed Martin has leveraged Keysight’s portfolio of flexible, scalable and fully automated test, measurement, validation and optimization tools to deliver the most advanced testbed for 5G and hybrid networks in the aerospace and defense industry.”

The testbed, which reached initial operating capability in July, is expected to help Lockheed Martin's 5G.MIL team rapidly validate the interoperability and performance of a wide range of 5G assets and simulate reliable and secure communications. Since then, the two companies have collaborated to emulate, test, and validate 5G Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) and non-terrestrial network communications, and through a strategic MOU, they will integrate additional capabilities necessary to support new research and development needs and maintain the latest technologies in 5G and beyond.