Italian Navy sets sail with Ericsson 5G

Ericsson, in partnership with international defence company Leonardo, has conducted a maritime connectivity test with the Italian Navy based on its 5G Standalone systems.

The trial was successfully completed, enabling connectivity between naval units engaged in a day and night training scenario on the open sea.

A completely self-contained end-to-end Ericsson 5G SA network – comprising Ericsson Ultra Compact Core and Ericsson massive MIMO radio access network products and services – was installed on the Italian Navy’s amphibious landing ship, San Giorgio, which served as the lead unit during a recent experimentation campaign.

Ericsson 5G SA customer premises equipment (CPE) was installed on a second unit of the Italian Navy, multi-purpose combat ship Raimondo Montecuccoli.

The test occurred as part of the EDF 5G 5G Communications for Peacekeeping and Defence (Compad) 2.0 project, and aimed to demonstrate outcomes during the Italian Navy’s open-sea Operational Experimentation (Opex) 2-25 programme in the Gulf of Taranto. The same Italian Navy experimentation, within the framework of the Multi-Domain Operational Experimentation Committee, included several other ecosystem partners testing at sea capabilities.

5G Compad 2.0 comprises a three-year European Defence Fund project that has the objective of turning the results of the original 5G Compad into a more advanced, deployable capability for coalition operations. It will look to develop the next generation of secure, resilient multi-dimensional defence communications leveraging both civil 5G and dedicated military technologies to support missions on land, at sea, in the air and in space.

Key focus areas of the programme include networks-as-a-sensor functionality, precise positioning, automatic network setup, non-terrestrial networks and dynamic spectrum-sharing, with strengthened cyber and information security throughout.

The Opex validated the performance, security and resilience of 5G SA for on-board connected systems, while also showing how a unified 5G network can optimise spectrum usage compared with multiple standalone communication systems operating on unlicensed and potentially overlapping bands with interference risks.

Ericsson also collaborated with the Italian Navy as part of 2024 Nato trials, when an end-to-end 5G SA network was installed in the Italian Naval base at Taranto.

The project saw the use of Ericsson’s 5G SA connectivity and Leonardo’s Nine encryption system, and set out to enable the secure, real-time exchange of classified and unclassified information between two naval units, including full situational awareness from the combat management system and video streams from 12 unmanned systems processed via the AI Brain platform.

Patrick Johansson, senior vice-president and head of Ericsson Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: “The Italian Navy is seeking the best possible connectivity solutions for its related needs, and we are proud to work with them towards that goal. Italy’s central Mediterranean location, with an exclusive economic zone spanning more than 500,000 square kilometres of sea, means the Italian Navy plays a strategically important role in Europe.”

Freddie Södergren, head of mission-critical networks at Ericsson, added: “As an integral part of Ericsson’s defence portfolio, our 5G platform is designed to meet the rigorous demands of the sector. This collaboration not only demonstrates the versatility of dual-use 5G in critical operations, but also highlights how enhanced connectivity at sea can significantly strengthen naval communications and operational effectiveness.”