The Pentagon has awarded five contracts to industry and academic teams to demonstrate new spectrum-sharing capabilities as part of its Advanced Spectrum Coexistence (ASC) initiative, officials announced on Oct. 1.
The ASC program – previously known as the Advanced Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Demonstration – aims to develop and test technologies that allow both military and commercial users to operate simultaneously within the same electromagnetic spectrum band.
The effort is led by the Department of Defense’s (DOD) – which the Trump Administration has rebranded as the Department of War – chief information officer (CIO) in partnership with the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC).
The five teams selected for the demonstrations are Peraton Labs, Interdigital Communications, Nokia Federal Solutions, RTX BBN Technologies, and the Kostas Research Institute at Northeastern University.
Each was awarded an other transaction agreement through the NSC.
“The Advanced Spectrum Coexistence Demonstration is a critical investment for our national security and economic competitiveness that aligns to Presidential priorities. Innovative solutions for spectrum sharing promotes warfighter lethality to ensure our military has access when needed,” Katie Arrington, performing the duties of the DOD CIO, said in a statement.
The demonstrations are expected to begin in November.
The five selected lead organizations will coordinate efforts involving 26 U.S.-based partners, including 21 small, nonprofit, or non-traditional defense contractors. Participants were chosen through a competitive evaluation process conducted by a board of DOD subject matter experts.
Defense officials said the results of the demonstrations will inform a follow-on study mandated by the Biden administration’s 2023 National Spectrum Strategy, focused on enabling dynamic spectrum-sharing operations.
Dynamic spectrum sharing, which uses technologies such as artificial intelligence to allocate spectrum access based on real-time demand, is widely viewed by experts as a potential long-term solution to ongoing spectrum access conflicts.
In recent years, spectrum sharing – particularly within the 3.1–3.45 GHz S-band used by the military for critical systems – has become a key point of contention. The telecom industry continues to advocate for reallocating parts of this band for commercial 5G services. While the debate has persisted for decades, it resurfaced prominently after the Trump administration announced plans for the Golden Dome missile defense initiative.