Aerospace company Lockheed Martin and AT&T officials are espousing the benefits of a 5G test that successfully transferred UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter health and usage data.
The test recently conducted at Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky headquarters in Stratford, Conn., demonstrated that wireless 5G technologies on the flight line could support accelerated maintenance operations improving aircraft readiness to support service members.
“These 5G capabilities deployed at scale are expected to enable high-speed, secure-data transfer on virtually any flight line, providing another example of how we’re advancing our 21st Century Security vision by improving customer readiness and operations,” Lockheed Martin 5G.MIL Programs Vice President Dan Rice said. “In collaboration with commercial 5G leaders, an interoperable 5G.MIL multi-site, multi-vendor network is another step closer to reality.”
Additionally, the test determined highly secure interoperability between the AT&T millimeter wave 5G private cellular network and the 5G.MIL pilot network – wirelessly transferring data to the 5G.MIL network via ground support equipment from the Black Hawk’s Integrated Vehicle Health Management System (IVHMS).
“Timely and secure transfer and analysis of mission and operations data are critical to military readiness and effectiveness,” AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet Defense Client Executive Vice President Lance Spencer said. “This is one of many areas of commercial 5G innovation we are exploring to support defense, commercial aviation, and related fields where our 5G-related services can modernize legacy processes and help deliver truly transformational benefits.”
Black Hawk crews currently take about 30 minutes to remove the IVHMS data cartridge from the helicopter, transport it to an operations center and extract the data for analysis. Lockheed Martin used AT&T 5G private cellular technologies to reduce the time required to less than five minutes.