The European Defence Fund (EDF) has just awarded a new project, 5G COMPAD – 5G Communications for Peacekeeping and Defence, in collaboration with EU-based 5G companies and researchers. The project aims to provide European defence forces with efficient and resilient multi-dimensional communication systems, with improved functionality and life cycle cost advantages over existing system.

5G offers a wide range of capabilities to effectively complement today’s standards of defence-related communications to offer superior operational capabilities for the European defence forces at strategic, operational, and tactical levels.

The 5G COMPAD project brings together leading 5G vendors, technology companies, SMEs, the strongest defence system integrators, research institutes, and mobile network operators from 11 EU member states and Norway. The project consortium members are Saab, Ericsson, Rheinmetall, Bittium, Nokia, Thales, Leonardo, Inster, Eightbells, Intracom Defense, CAFA Tech, Telenor, SINTEF, FFI (NO Gov), LMT, AIT, Synkzone, BHE and APR Technologies. Additionally, the 5G COMPAD project is supported by ten European governments and defence ministries, bringing geographical balance and diversity. 

The 5G COMPAD project was kicked-off on December 1, 2022 during a meeting in Stockholm, Sweden with the participation of the European Commission, Member States representatives and the industrial consortium. The project will be ongoing for 36 months, and it will prototype, test, and demonstrate the operational capabilities of 5G integrated with several defence platforms and systems, proposing how commercial mobile communications technology can support sustained information and operational superiority for the success of European defence forces. The project will also address the increased need for high-level cyber and information security.

The expected 5G COMPAD project outcomes include strengthened resilience and technological sovereignty of the EU, information superiority, increased tactical interoperability of European defence forces leading to reinforced innovation leadership of the European industry.

The total eligible costs of the 5G COMPAD project amount to EUR 37.1 million, out of which EUR 27 million is co-funded by the European Defence Fund.

Project: 101103519 — 5G COMPAD — EDF-2021-C4ISR-D-2