b'5G IN THE DoDvery challenging. So, if we can improveto go as soon as the ship docks. their training by bringing new capabilities to them when theyre not in the fight,Thats just the beginning. A fully connected smart warehouse could one day see theyll be ready for the fight. It makes medrones perform laborious tasks, such as inventory. And autonomous vehicles could extremely proud. haul shipments around. 5G doesnt have to be confined to a warehouse. The Navy is also working with AT&T Navy and Marine Corps: Building ato rethink the way ships connect to the Navys network when they dock. Its an Better Warehouse initiative that explores the concept of smart ports. Theres a famous aphorism in the study of warfare stretching back centuries:When a Navy ship comes into port after being out at sea, a huge amount of data Tactics win the battle, but logistics winshas to be uploaded to the Navy network from the ship. Currently, ships are hooked the war.up via fiber-optic cables. But there are challenges with this approach. For one thing, Jamie Gateau the fiber cable system sits out on the pier, exposed to the elements. And the ship The U.S. military has the biggest logisticscan only get linked up once its docked at the pier and literally plugged in. operation in the world. Now, DoD wants to use 5G to build a better warehouse.The ability to get connectivity to the ships atthe pier is expensive and complicated, says Jamie Gateau, the director of strategy and solutions for AT&Ts Navy group. One of the greatest challenges thatTheres a lot of time lost, once the ship is pier-side in order to get connected.our military forces face is maintaining supplies at installations and withWith AT&Ts help, the Navy is now exploring forward-deployed troops, especially in5G capabilities to go completely wirelessImagine a world where you areas that are hard to reach, Singer says.to essentially provide 5G pier connectivity as Imagine a world in which you have total visibility across the supply chain.a service.have total visibility across the supply chain.In its 5G solicitation issued last year, DoD announced the Marine Corps Logistics inMoving away from a fixed fiber-optic Albany, Georgia, would rapidly develop a prototype for advancing and leveraginginfrastructure to something like a portableJAMIE GATEAU // DIRECTOR STRATEGY & SOLUTIONS // AT&T PUBLIC SECTORNAVY 5G-enabled technologies to improve warehouse operations, using IoT devices andmmWave 5G+ solution would allow the Navy other sensors to track the supplies, among other capabilities.more flexibility. They could essentially turn off service when its not neededor power up if necessaryand pay only for the That truly is a natural fit for 5G, says Lantzy, the head of AT&T Public Sectorsbandwidth it uses, Gateau says. Navy division, noting that warehouse operations today are actually complex and largely manual.In the long-term, the technology could be expanded from the pier to the shipyard to improve the maintenance process for Navy ships.5G can help streamline that whole process, he adds. Pieces and parts arent going missing; perishable items arent expiring on the shelf. In the Navys case, itemsToday, maintenance crews and technicians still handle work orders and equipment needed to make repairs to a ship thats coming into port are packaged and readylists on paper. Enhanced wireless capabilities could completely transform the 8 9'