Amentum’s Hamp McManus, Earl Johnson: DoD Should Advance 5G-Backed Joint Training Environment

Wade “Hamp” McManus and Earl Johnson of Amentum wrote in a joint commentary published Wednesday on Defense News that the Department of Defense should pursue the establishment of a joint synthetic training environment and leverage advances in communications technology to improve the readiness of the joint force.

“The concept development of a joint STE must ensure a virtual training environment that enhances the speed of decision-making, delivers decisive actions and outcomes, and creates effects that will lead to victory on the future battlefield,” they wrote.

McManus and Johnson said DoD should support the joint STE with a secure 5G network, which they said will be a “critical enabler in making this type of training possible.”

“Likewise, the end state for future DoD training ranges must be a genuinely joint, live, virtual and constructive training enterprise that uses 5G as the overarching backbone to integrate ranges, bases and operations across the services and the STE,” they wrote. “Leveraging secure 5G technology to facilitate a joint STE is the way ahead, optimizing joint force readiness to be prepared for and win the next big war.”

McManus is a retired U.S. Army major general and senior vice president of defense programs at Amentum, while Johnson is a retired Army colonel and SVP of Army and cyber programs at the company.