Rebecca Grant
Donald Trump Must Guard Spectrum for Radars to Defend the USA: No, the U.S. military cannot share a critical piece of S-band radar spectrum with commercial 5G wireless providers. Not if the new Trump administration wants to improve defenses against mystery drones and guard against threats of missiles from China and Russia.
“President Trump has talked about an Iron Dome for America,” incoming National Security Mike Waltz told CBS News, referring to Israel’s missile defense system. “That needs to include drones as well, not just adversarial actions like hypersonic missiles,” Waltz said.
The priority is clear. However, if the new Trump administration is serious about missile defense for the United States, or any improvements at all, the new team will have to engage on the priority of keeping S-band spectrum clear for military radars that track those missiles and drones.
The U.S. military relies on a slew of S-band radars to carry out critical missile tracking. During the Biden years, an idea took shape that the military might be able to share the S-band spectrum with commercial 5G wireless companies in order to meet growing consumer demand.
The demand for more wireless spectrum is beyond dispute. Social media apps and videos account for up to 80% of the demand for wireless data usage and are soaring in popularity. For example, Americans consumed 100 trillion megabytes of wireless in 2023, so the wireless industry wants Congress to “restore the FCC’s auction authority and create a pipeline of much-needed mid-band spectrum,” according to Meredith Attwell Baker, CTIA President and CEO. 5G commercial operators began eyeing the 3100–3450 MHz slice of the S-band spectrum to accommodate growth.
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