US Air Force, Space Force Officials Cite Potential DOD Costs of Repurposing Lower 3 GHz for 5G

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., continued Tuesday his recent streak of Senate Armed Services Committee hearings in which he’s pressed DOD officials to support his bid to delay congressional action to repurpose portions of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial 5G use until after the Pentagon completes a study of its systems on the frequency. Rounds’ concerns about a premature lower 3 GHz repurposing led him to object in March to a House-passed bill that would have extended the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through May 19 (HR-1108), setting the stage for the mandate’s expiration (see 2303090074). Lawmakers haven’t reached a consensus on reconsidering his alternative proposal to restore the authority through Sept. 30 (see 2304280027). “Physics still count” in determining the appropriate use of a particular band, Rounds said Tuesday after Gen. Chance Saltzman, U.S. Space Force chief-space operations, said repurposing parts of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band could force the military to migrate off the frequency a “developmental radar that is going to significantly enhance our ability to do space domain awareness.” Shifting the radar off the band would mean “we lose the time we’ve already invested” plus as much as several hundred million dollars in development costs, and “would also mean that we have to use” different spectrum that “isn’t as capable” for deep space operations, Saltzman said. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown said the DOD’s study of the band will be “critical to understand the impact” on U.S. national security that could come from repurposing it for 5G. He said some Special Operations Forces C-130 aircraft equipment utilizes the frequency and it would cost about $2 billion to “redesign it” to operate on another band.