Military Technology 06/2020

Another battlefield of growing importance is 5G. “In this race to 5G the one who gets there first is the one who will demonstrate global leadership,” said Nicol Turner Lee, Fellow of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation during a webinar Global China – Assessing China‘s Technological Reach in the World in early May. “China has been able to release multi-band spectrum which will equip these devices to do some real neat things while in the USA we have been ‘spectrum-stuck’ […] that has forced the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to throw out much government-based spectrum and reallocate that for commercial purposes.” In February, the Pentagon launched a ‘virtual industry day’ for nearly 300 companies bidding to take part in 5G experiments at four bases across the USA which will examine ways in which the 5G network can be exploited for defence purposes. These include new ways to develop realistic aug- mented reality (AR) training scenarios, logistical supply management and sharing frequencies with civilian surveillance systems. The aim is to spend the next few months understanding the potential and limitations of the network for these and other applications. Following these discussions, the DoD plans to launch a detailed request for information to industry in December this year. In contrast, China Mobile launched its Internet of Aircraft plan to build three-dimensional layered air network coverage in March 2018, com­ bining satellite and 4G/5G air-to-ground networks, while 5G base sta- tions, able to handle a downlink of at least 20Gbps and uplink of 10Gps, have been supporting general aviation communications in China since last year. The traffic is not entirely one way. In certain key areas, such as edge and quantum computing, the USA is at least maintaining its technological edge over China. But even in these areas, China is catching up fast and is reported to be developing a new generation of quantum-based techno­ logies for long-range secure communications, submarine detection and radar. But perhaps with Agility Prime the DoD has found a new way to deal directly with Silicon Valley in a way which will circumnavigate lengthy bureaucratic procurement procedures vulnerable to funding blockages and the cultural hurdles that separate these institutions. At the end of April 2020, the US Air Force did something it has never done before: it announced it would become the major investor in a new civilian transport sector – the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry. Agility Prime was a week-long virtual event organised by the USAF to rapidly transform the US military and civil electric air taxi industry by forming joint research and development programmes with civil manufacturers of passenger-carrying electric VTOL (eVTOL) platforms. One of the main drivers of the programme is to ensure US industry does not cede the technological and industrial high ground in this strategic sector to manufacturers from abroad – in the way the small unmanned air system (sUAS) sector in the USA came to be dominated by Chinese manufac­ turers, who now collectively make up more than 70% of the domestic US civil drone market. “We want to look ahead to commercial markets to accelerate in a way which helps our nation but helps our military as well…we want to shape and drive and accelerate the market itself,” said Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, during the launch of the programme. The USAF wants to acquire fleets of ‘orbs’ – eVTOLs capable of han- dling multiple military missions, including distributed logistics and sus- tainment, medical evacuation, firefighting, civil and military disaster relief, search and rescue, and humanitarian relief operations. As well as directly funding strategic programmes, the USAF will assist civil developers by providing testing ranges and engineering support on safety issues. The initial generation of ‘orbs’ is for vehicles able to carry three to eight people at more than 100 mph, flying more than 100 miles, with an endurance of more than one hour. The service is planning the first full-scale flights by December 17 this year and the first vehicles into service by 2023. The US civil AAM industry would like to have the first eVTOLs flying passengers around US cities by 2024. China’s EHang Holdings Limited, however, just a few days before the Agility Prime event, announced it would be launching and operating an autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) hub in Hezhou (Guangxi Province) by the end of this year. Agility Prime marks a sea change in the way the US military plans to work with Silicon Valley to exploit next-generation information and transport technologies for the defence market. Computing-at-the-edge, Blockchain, 5G, Internet of Things, advanced air mobility – these are the new technology battlefields between China and the USA and, despite a preponderance of global IT silicon-based companies in its back yard, it is a battle the USA is in danger of losing. 72 · MT 6/2020 Rear Echelon Philip Butterworth-Hayes Are Flying Cars the New Battleground? Philip Butterworth-Hayes is Editor of Unmanned Airspace , the information portal for counter-UAS and UAS traffic management systems