EchoStar Corporation announced the contract period of performance extension by the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) FutureG Office, for the continued deployment of standalone 5G networks at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) in Hawaii and at the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (NASWI) in Washington State. The contract extension builds on the award for NASWI in 2021 and additional expansion in Hawaii in 2022, extending both through 2025 with additional 5G enhancements. EchoStar is a premier supporter of the use of Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) in DoD networks and recently won a $50 Million NTIA grant to build an ORAN test center.

EchoStar subsidiary Hughes leads the deployments as the prime contractor, integrating standards-based, best-of-breed components, like radio access, edge cloud, and a packet processing core, with Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) and seamless, global satellite connectivity augmented by embedded Network Operations Capabilities and Security Operations Capabilities (SOC). The project is using ORAN infrastructure and engineering expertise along with EchoStar's 5G spectrum. There are transport routers, switches, and firewalls from Cisco; computing infrastructure from Dell Technologies; radio access network from JMA Wireless; edge cloud stack and Intel Xeon processors from Intel; and site survey and network installation services from Boingo Wireless.

The initial NASWI deployment was completed with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 30, 2023 to commemorate the launch of the standalone 5G network. The deployment improves aircraft readiness by enabling immediate, real-time communication coordination across the flight line to reduce maintenance time and decrease preparation time between missions. Both deployments are designed to support National Security Agency Commercial Solution for Classified (CSFC) requirements.

This contract extension comes under an Other Transaction Agreement issued through the Information Warfare Research Project consortium as part of on-going 5G experimentation led by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) FutureG Office.