The Ministry of Defence has signed a contract with LMT for the development of a 5G military test site. The agreement was signed by Minister of Defence Artis Pabriks and LMT president Juris Binde.
The contract encompasses the further development of the 5G testbed at the Ādaži military site, including related solution R&D, military scenario cooperative modeling, development, and testing in an environment specifically adapted to the needs of the National Guard and NATO safety requirements.
Collaboration with LMT will allow for the continued development of the 5G environment at the Ādaži base, offering even more use cases and creating innovative technological solutions for the nation's defence, inhabitant wellbeing, and safety. Several NATO research and innovation departments have already demonstrated interest in participating in Latvia's 5G testbed experiments, which affirms this project's potential and international significance.
Artis Pabriks, Minister for Defence of the Republic of LatviaThe agreement also foresees the use of the testbed in various defence projects in which Latvia is involved, including; the European Defence Fund, The Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), the Ministry of Defence’s supported national innovation grant systems, and the national defence research program.
The defence sector can no longer exist without mobile technologies, and that is Latvia's advantage and opportunity at an international scale, where LMT as an innovations leader can offer a significant investment. The collaboration between LMT and the Ministry of Defence until now has led to the development of varied technological innovations for the military industry. We're delighted that LMT's knowledge, 5G network infrastructure solutions and more than 5 years of field experience with drones, IoT and mobility will continue to be invested into the development of defence strengthening solutions.
Juris Binde, President of LMTThe agreement comes after the Latvian parliament, Saeima, supported the concept of strengthening ICT technologies in defence as one of the nation’s priorities in September of 2020. Based on this mandate, the Ministry of Defence in collaboration with LMT developed the first 5G military testbed in Europe, which was launched in November of 2020.
The 5G testbed in the Ādaži base will make it possible to develop and test various sensors, defence systems, platforms, and remote solutions, thus significantly furthering the military industry’s technological development and Latvia’s technological export capacity.