In an exclusive interview with FNTV at MWC 2025, Giuseppe Targia, Head of Nokia’s Microwave & Space and Defense, discusses Nokia’s scollaboration with Lockheed Martin and Verizon. Together, they’ve integrated Nokia’s military-grade 5G solutions into Lockheed Martin’s 5G.MIL Hybrid Base Station, enabling seamless switching between commercial 5G and tactical networks for uninterrupted user sessions on Android devices.
Targia highlights Nokia’s leadership in security and privacy, as well as its ability to adapt commercial 5G technology for military use. With optimized weight, size, power efficiency, and robust security, this partnership sets the stage for future advancements in hybrid network testing and tactical communication systems, ensuring 5G benefits extend to military operations.
Steve Saunders:
Giuseppe, we saw the announcement with Lockheed Martin. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Giuseppe Targia:
Yeah, I think it is a great achievement for both company. We are working together, Lockheed Martin and Verizon. What we are doing is we are integrating a Military Version of the 5G technology together with tactical, making seamless to tactical and 5G. That actually is meant to cover the gap that today technology has in term of performance. 5G technology is much more performance. It's 10 time faster than any tactical technology so, this will improve dramatically the situational awareness.
Steve Saunders:
That's really interesting. You're repurposing almost, 5G as a solution for Military applications. What type of systems will 5G be used in?
Giuseppe Targia:
Actually the beauty of 5G, it can be used across the entire Military domains from strategic base for wording base to tactical domain, because of the power of the technology and the flexibility of the technology itself. So today we're working on what's called hybrid based-station Verizon, but we are planning to work and to move more and more to the battlefield.
Steve Saunders:
How big a deal is this for Nokia?
Giuseppe Targia:
It's a big deal not only for Nokia, I think it's a big deal for the entire Defense industry. Because as I said before, we're introducing a technology that is by far more advanced than the traditional one, to cover a gap that exists today. Think about the capability we're introducing. They will be able to connect the sensor, the robot, the drones, to the artificial intelligence. Sensor, robot, drone need I-bandwidth, artificial intelligence is able to work on the data that are coming from the head of the network. What is the machine link? It is an I-bandwidth connection that connect the two. So, that's really a game changer.
Steve Saunders:
Giuseppe, do you have to do work to 5G to make it fit for purpose for these new Military applications?
Giuseppe Targia:
Yes, definitely you have to [inaudible 00:02:13] a little bit 5G, but being spent hundred of billions to develop. So, we need incremental investment that are marginal compared to the one spent because of the different use-case of Military. You need lower power consumption, a different form factor, specific feature. But as I said, it is a marginal investment, and the result will be a technology that revolutionizes the way we do communication in the battlefield.
Steve Saunders:
Giuseppe, what's next for this partnership?
Giuseppe Targia:
Well, as I said before, this is just the beginning of a collaboration. We are really proud of having such a partner with us, because 5G is very flexible and can be used in multiple use-case. So, we are analyzing some in this partnership in this moment, but we have planned to apply technology, the 5G technology almost to all the telecommunication use-case, with the impact of a really tremendous improvement of the capability in the field.
Steve Saunders:
Lockheed Martin is a huge company, it's an American company. Are you seeing other companies and other Militaries starting to adopt 5G as the lingua franca of the battlefield?
Giuseppe Targia:
Well, 5G is, let me say, like a buzzword today in the Military field. Everybody talk about 5G. It's difficult to develop 5G with a level of flexibility that you need to adapt to the Military case. I don't think all the company will be able to do it. Only who has really developed the code for the thousand of service for other billion of customers, like Nokia, can really define and create a protocol that works in the Military field.
Steve Saunders:
Are you concerned about the ethical implications of Militaries using a consumer 5G technology? That's out of your hands how they deploy 5G in Military applications.
Giuseppe Targia:
Well, obviously there is always concern, and that's the reason why we do not work and we do not sell our technology to everybody. We select countries that will use this technology, but at the same time, let's be also honest, we need to improve our defense capability as a system. This is one of the way, and it would be, let me say, not smart to step back and to not improve our capability just for whatever reason.