FutureG Office

Advancing Telecommunication for America’s Warfighters

The FutureG Office within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering is responsible for the strategic assessment and research and development of FutureG technologies to confer long-term economic, military and security advantages to the United States of America and its allies.

By strengthening and developing relationships with private industry, academia, and interagency partners, the FutureG office promotes the use of common, commercial standards for Department of Defense (DoD) operations, proliferates open and interoperable technologies, and advances critical next-generation wireless network capabilities.

FutureG_FINAL
Learn More


"Building technology for technology’s sake is meaningless, building technology and getting it into the hands of the end user is the goal. Our end user is the warfighter."

Dr. Tom Rondeau, Principal Director, FutureG Office

Resilient and Open Commercial Solutions

Learn More

Expeditionary and Tactical Use

Learn More

Ubiquitous, Secure and Instant Access

Learn More

Integrated Sensing and Communication

Partnerships

Learn More

Recent News

DOD’s FutureG & 5G Director Thomas Rondeau Urges Real-World 5G Experimentation Over Demos

April 13, 2023- 5G has become an essential component of the United States military’s connectivity from bases within the country to warfighters at the tactical edge.

US agencies target open RAN acceleration

The fund sits within the US Department of Commerce and was allotted $1.5 billion from the CHIPS Act in August 2022 with the primary directive of accelerating commercial deployments of open RAN and interoperable networks.uring a keynote address.

MWC Las Vegas 2023 keynote: US Department of Defence

Thomas Rondeau, Principal Director for FutureG & 5G, US Department of Defence, in conversation with Carolina Milanesi, President & Principal Analyst, Creative Strategies.

Joint Statement Endorsing Principles for 6G: Secure, Open, and Resilient by Design

The Governments of the United States, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom concur on these shared principles for the research and development of 6G wireless communication systems; and recognize that by working together we can support open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, resilient, and secure connectivity. 

DoD officials convene at ASU to learn about university-led microelectronics hub

Some of the top defense technology officials in the U.S. came to Arizona State University recently to hear about the progress of the new Southwest Accelerated Prototyping Hub, led by ASU.

The hub, designed to jump-start microelectronics projects funded by the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, is a collaboration that has grown to more than 130 leading corporate, startup, academic and national lab partners from the semiconductor and defense sectors in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and beyond.

Q&A: Open RAN, 5G and the US DoD

This week’s RIC Forum event in Dallas, Texas, is a showcase of the state of the Radio Access Network Intelligent Controller and its associated applications, including live-streamed demonstrations from the field of dynamic network changes triggered by RIC apps on actual sites.

The event is hosted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense’s FutureG Office. Ahead of the event, RCR Wireless News reached out to Dr. Tom Rondeau, principal director for the FutureG Office, for his perspective on the state of Open RAN and 5G as it relates to the Department of Defense.

NTIA releases spectrum strategy implementation plan

WASHINGTON – The National Spectrum Strategy ("the Strategy"), released November 13, 2023, charts a course for sustained U.S. leadership in advanced wireless technologies and services. The radio spectrum provides numerous forms of connectivity to the American public, from the voice and data communications that fuel smartphones to critical government services that depend on spectrum access, and it therefore serves as a key foundation for the digital infrastructure on which the modern American economy runs.

DoD Extends Contract for ORAN-based Private 5G Networks through 2025

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.

U.S-EU Joint Statement of the Trade and Technology Council

The sixth ministerial meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (“TTC”) took place in Leuven, Belgium, on 4 and 5 April 2024. It was co-chaired by European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai, joined by European Commissioner Thierry Breton, and hosted by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Department of Defense Enhances Technology Transitions Through New Advisory Group

In a move to streamline technology transitions, Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, has inaugurated the Transition Tracking Action Group (TTAG). This advisory body, established March 13, is set to harness advanced data analytics to track how the Department of Defense (DoD) delivers capabilities to the field.

DoD outlines spectrum moonshot endeavor during eclipse

They’re calling it a moonshot – akin to sending men to the moon in the 1960s. It’s all about developing a dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) framework to share spectrum between the Department of Defense (DoD) and commercial wireless users.

Will it be tough? You bet. Impossible? Not according to the folks who participated in an event at CTIA headquarters on Monday – at the same time many people were putting their glasses on to watch the sun, moon and earth align.

How Open RAN Plays Into the DOD’s 5G Journey; Lt. Col. Benjamin Pimentel Quoted

Open radio access networks, or Open RAN, is a new approach to RANs that separates traditionally integrated hardware and software and upholds a set of specific standards to enable multiple vendors to provide different components under one cloud service provider’s network.

The Department of Defense has made 5G a top priority, and it has taken notice of the benefits Open RAN has to offer. Join us at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 5G Forum on May 22 to hear DOD leaders and industry experts share their insights on the ways in which the department is leveraging networks to transform military operations.

Joint Statement on Enhancing Digital Economy Cooperation Between the United States of America and the Republic of Costa Rica

In alignment with our shared values and in response to the evolving digital landscape, the United States of America and the Republic of Costa Rica announce a strategic commitment to foster open, interoperable, reliable, and secure digital infrastructure in Costa Rica.  This is highlighted by our collaboration at the Regional 5G Network Workshop, organized by the United States in San Jose, Costa Rica.

How DOD Is Working to Share Confidential, Critical Spectrum Network Access With Industry; John Sherman Quoted

One of the more ambitious missions of the U.S. Department of Defense in recent memory is its dynamic spectrum sharing, or DSS, framework. This initiative aims to identify a pathway to securely open up a spectrum band to commercial wireless users that is typically used for critical military purposes like missile deterrence.