The U.S. military is heading for a big, new problem with its radars. To meet soaring demand for TikTok videos and other apps running on 5G, Congress is under pressure to sell off prime slices of the radio wave spectrum at a frequency location called S-band—thereby forcing military defense systems to cozy up and “share” with commercial wireless companies.
S-band radars are already part of the missile warning for Alaska and the new system in Hawaii. Guam’s enhanced 360-degree defense, now under construction, also depends on S-band. As threats grow, S-band radars will be integral to protecting the continental United States, too.
If Congress authorizes the FCC to sell licenses for the segments of S-band used by the military, the results could be catastrophic—and very costly to remedy.
Military radars have been integral to operations since early in World War II, and they’ve gotten better with each decade. Major types of military equipment use different frequency bands on the electromagnetic spectrum. High-power, low-frequency radars track distant objects. Shorter waves at higher frequencies take over for finesse tasks like fire control. All bands have their functions. C-Band is medium range, X-Band is for short range, Ku-Band is for close-in support, and so on.
The S-band radars are vital, and the need to fence off the military spectrum has been lost in the clutter for too long.
Sharing wireless spectrum is a fact of life, but there is a backstory to this current problem. For the past 30 years, the Federal Communications Commission has made billions by auctioning spectrum rights. (Sometimes the revenue even gets applied to the national debt.) Over time, more segments of the spectrum have been licensed for everything from mobile phones to high-definition video.
There are plenty of cases where DoD and commercial providers co-exist quite well in the spectrum, such as when DoD purchases communications services, for example.
This is not one of those cases.
Of course, the technical selling points for S-band make it very attractive to commercial ventures, too. When these military high-tech systems were designed, S-band was just for the military. Hence, several commercial companies want to cut in and operate their systems in S-band. Videos and social media apps eat up 80 percent of wireless data usage. Commercial wireless companies are seeking out more room on the spectrum to run 5G, while keeping costs down.
Of course, it isn’t that simple. Inserting commercial users into the military wavelengths of S-band would significantly degrade the long-range tracking and discrimination function by squeezing the functionality of the smaller spectrum slice. The military radars wouldn’t have the “room” they need to function at full capacity, if restricted from a chunk of their required spectrum band due to new commercial users operating there. In this case, full capacity means range resolution and field of view, both quite essential for missile defense. Think of it as setting back American radars by forty years.
American economic prosperity does not depend on clearing S-band for commercial uses. Commercial wireless firms can cope with military radars in S-band by shifting their attention to other parts of the spectrum.
As China is building up its nuclear arsenal and experimenting with hypersonic weapons, the full abilities of S-band are becoming even more important. Said another way, the worse the threat gets, the more America will rely on unimpeded S-band military radars. Choking off part of the spectrum could limit the ability for radars to see multiple missiles and warheads aimed at the American homeland or at U.S. forces overseas.
China knows full well how important S-band is to U.S. military operations. China reserves crucial S-band spectrum for its own use, but is pushing an international standard that, conveniently, would interfere with U.S. military systems.
Considering the unprecedented threats to global security posed by Russia, China, and North Korea, this is no time to endanger national security with a misplaced S-band sale.
