5G COMPAD Project Concludes Three-Year Mission to Advance European Defence Communications
EU-funded consortium demonstrates how adapted 5G networks can enhance resilience, interoperability, and decision-making across European defence operations.
A landmark European Defence Fund (EDF) initiative focused on next-generation military communications has reached its conclusion, delivering a comprehensive body of validated research, live demonstrations, and a forward-looking architectural blueprint for 5G-enabled defence systems.
The 5G COMPAD project — formally titled 5G Communications for Peacekeeping and Defence — launched in December 2022 under the EDF 2021 call for "ISR and advanced communications."
Over three years, the initiative brought together 5G vendors, defence system integrators, research institutions, and mobile network operators from across Europe, with Swedish defence and security company Saab serving as coordinating partner. Total eligible project costs reached €37.1 million, with the European Union contributing €27 million in co-funding.
The project's central objective was to determine how commercial 5G technologies could be adapted and integrated into defence platforms to deliver secure, resilient, and interoperable communications across land, sea, and air domains. The results, according to the project team, confirm that tailored 5G networks can meaningfully enhance data sharing, situational awareness, and decision-making in demanding operational environments.
Demonstrations Across Multiple Countries and Domains
A series of six demonstrations — three global and three local — were conducted across Latvia, Germany, Sweden, Hungary, and Italy. Each was designed to validate specific use cases under realistic operational conditions.
In Riga, Latvia, the first global demonstration tested 5G deployment scenarios spanning maritime, aerial, and land-based environments, including rapid network setup in a simulated military base.
In Letzlingen, Germany, the project demonstrated cross-national interoperability between tactical radios and smartphones, seamless switching between public and military networks, and secure communications in GNSS-degraded conditions.
The final global demonstration, held in Arboga, Sweden, centred on air operations, exploring how a dispersed airbase could be rapidly established near a conflict zone, with mission-critical data offloaded from returning aircraft over 5G to compress turnaround times and accelerate the OODA loop.
Alongside the demonstrations, the project produced 52 technical and scientific deliverables, collectively forming a shared European knowledge base on 5G-enabled defence communications.
Architecture, Interoperability, and Security
Among its core technical achievements, 5G COMPAD delivered a validated reference architecture for a multi-dimensional 5G communications system capable of integrating with existing defence platforms and command-and-control infrastructure. The project also developed prototypes for independent tactical 5G "bubbles" that can be deployed, linked, and managed at different operational echelons, as well as mechanisms for connecting 5G networks with legacy tactical radios and military IP infrastructure. Work on non-terrestrial network (NTN) integration further expanded the potential for resilient and flexible connectivity in environments where terrestrial infrastructure is unavailable or compromised.
Path to Deployable Capabilities
The 5G COMPAD project's conclusions provide a practical foundation for the next phase of European defence communications development. A follow-on initiative, 5G COMPAD 2.0, has already been selected under the EDF 2024 call for "Development actions on information superiority." The successor project will build directly on the validated concepts and architecture developed to date, with the goal of maturing these into deployable, interoperable capabilities and contributing to a broader defence multi-dimensional communication framework for European armed forces.
About the consortium
The 5G COMPAD consortium brought together 19 partners from 11 EU Member States (Austria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Spain and Sweden) and Norway, spanning large industry, SMEs, research institutes and mobile network operators.
Consortium members and countries of establishment:
- SAAB AB (Coordinator) – Sweden
- APR TECHNOLOGIES AB – Sweden
- AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH – Austria
- BHE BONN HUNGARY ELECTRONICS LTD – Hungary
- BITTIUM WIRELESS OY – Finland
- CAFA TECH OU – Estonia
- EIGHT BELLS HELLAS I.K.E. – Greece
- ERICSSON AB – Sweden
- FORSVARETS FORSKNINGINSTITUTT – Norway
- INSTER TECNOLOGIA Y COMUNICACIONES SAU – Spain
- INTRACOM DEFENSE SINGLE MEMBER S.A. – Greece
- LATVIJAS MOBILAIS TELEFONS SIA (LMT) – Latvia
- LEONARDO – SOCIETA PER AZIONI – Italy
- NOKIA SOLUTIONS AND NETWORKS OY – Finland
- RHEINMETALL ELECTRONICS GMBH – Germany
- SINTEF AS – Norway
- SYNKZONE AB – SwedenTELENOR ASA – Norway
- THALES SIX GTS FRANCE SAS – France
