Abdulkadir Gunyol and Emir Yildirim
07 October 2025•Update: 07 October 2025
ISTANBUL
The widespread adoption of 5G technology is contributing to the efficacy of defense systems worldwide, with much faster data speeds, significantly less connection latency, and higher bandwidth.
One of the biggest impacts of 5G is in unmanned systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). The low latency of 5G allows for real-time transmission of high-definition video streams and image surveillance to the operator.
The People’s Liberation Army of China, for instance, aims to establish the world’s largest unmanned military unit made up of tens and thousands of UAVs, robot dogs, and autonomous platforms with 5G at the heart of the operation, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.
Military communications also benefit from 5G due to its capacity for data-sharing capabilities between units, high-speed communications for mobile headquarters, and connecting radar and sensor networks.
The US Defense Department announced that it invested $600 million in 2020 to conduct 5G tests at give military bases to integrate the technology into communications. It also allocated $2 billion to advance its military 5G research.
Last year NATO launched its Multinational 5G Initiative to conduct joint research and development to integrate 5G into military systems to build a secure and interoperable infrastructure. Türkiye, Italy, and Spain are the founding member states of the project.
