IN Brief:
- Microamp has been awarded a UK MoD contract for 5G mmWave tactical communications through NATO DIANA.
- The system is being integrated into CSOC’s secure mobile enterprise solution for data-centric operations.
- The work highlights demand for rapidly deployable, low-signature communications linking sensors, autonomous systems, and command networks.
Microamp has secured a UK Ministry of Defence contract to deploy 5G mmWave tactical communications for Cyber & Specialist Operations Command, bringing high-capacity wireless networking further into the defence experimentation and adoption cycle.
The system has been procured through the MoD’s Integrated Warfare Centre and facilitated by NATO DIANA’s Rapid Adoption Service. It will be integrated into CSOC’s secure mobile enterprise solution, supporting data-centric operations, tactical connectivity, and next-generation warfare development in contested or infrastructure-limited environments.
Built around 5G millimetre-wave connectivity, the system uses highly directional narrow beams to deliver high throughput, low latency, and a reduced electromagnetic signature. Microamp’s technology is designed to support low probability of intercept and low probability of detection characteristics, while offering resistance to jamming and electromagnetic interference. It can be deployed as an ad-hoc tactical network linking field teams, drones, uncrewed systems, command posts, sensors, and edge-computing assets.
The work sits at the intersection of cyber, electronic warfare, communications manufacturing, and autonomy. Armed forces are trying to move larger volumes of data at the tactical edge, while conventional radio networks face detection, targeting, jamming, congestion, and terrain-related limits. Higher-bandwidth links are becoming essential as units pass live video, sensor feeds, targeting data, medical information, and autonomous-system control traffic between dispersed assets.
A defence-grade tactical 5G system cannot simply be a commercial network repackaged for the field. Radios, antennas, servers, power systems, rugged enclosures, network-management software, security layers, and orchestration tools have to survive deployment by small teams in harsh operating conditions. Equipment must be portable enough for rapid movement, robust enough for field use, and secure enough to sit inside military communications architectures.
The procurement route is also significant for UK industry. NATO DIANA’s Rapid Adoption Service is designed to move field-ready dual-use technologies into allied military use more quickly than conventional procurement. For smaller deep-tech companies, the framework can reduce the gap between demonstration and operational evaluation. For the MoD, it creates a route to test rapidly evolving commercial technologies before a full programme structure forms around them.
Private wireless networks are becoming more relevant to defence operations as forces look for temporary, high-capacity data bubbles that can be established around command posts, forward bases, vehicle groups, logistics hubs, medical sites, or unmanned-system launch points. These networks are unlikely to replace existing tactical radios, but they can add a high-data layer for functions that older communications systems were never designed to carry.
The same pressure sits behind wider defence cyber concerns. In China-linked botnets sharpen UK defence cyber risk, compromised edge devices illustrated how vulnerable connected infrastructure can become when security is bolted on late. Tactical 5G systems need resilience built into the architecture from the start, especially when they are expected to carry operational data in contested environments.
Production scale will determine whether the technology moves beyond trials. Specialist radios, rugged servers, antenna design, spectrum management, software updates, cybersecurity assurance, training, export controls, and field support will shape adoption as much as radio performance. A deployable network that works in a controlled trial still has to be manufactured, configured, repaired, and supported across multiple operational settings.
Microamp’s contract gives the UK MoD a practical route to test tactical 5G at the edge of cyber and specialist operations. It also gives industry a clearer signal that secure, low-signature, high-throughput networking is becoming part of the defence production landscape, alongside platforms, sensors, weapons, and the software needed to connect them.
