“Security needs to be baked in from the start,” said Bill Sellers, Director, 5G Advanced Wireless IPT, Navy — a line that anchored a wider conversation about how the Navy, the Department of War (DoW), CISA and industry are turning 5G from a consumer upgrade into mission-capable infrastructure.
Who spoke and why it mattered at the Federal Executive Forum
The remarks came during the “Federal Executive Forum 5G Strategies in Government Progress and Best Practices 2026” webinar, where four panelists laid out different, complementary approaches to 5G adoption: Bill Sellers (Navy); Lt. Col. Tom Collins, COCOM Engagement Lead for FutureG, OUSD (R&E), Department of War; Billy Bob Brown, Executive Assistant Director for Emergency Communications, CISA; and David Stepp, Director of Solutions Architecture for Federal Mobility, Verizon. Each framed 5G not as a standalone technology but as a platform for logistics, sensing, resilience and operational communications.
Bill Sellers and the Navy’s staged, mission-first rollout
Sellers described a deliberate Navy approach that begins with a “soft launch” of 5G on ships to support quality-of-life applications such as remote training and family communications. That early, lower-risk deployment is explicitly intended to precede broader efforts to “bring 5G to the edge” and support operational capabilities. The Navy is already using 5G for asset tracking and logistics: in one U.S. Marine warehouse deployment, automation and robotics reduced a process that used to take about eight months to less than an hour. Sellers also flagged future integration with unmanned systems — for example, to inspect aircraft or reach equipment in hard-to-access shipboard locations — but underscored the need for security and user adoption from the outset.
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See what we buildLt. Col. Tom Collins and FutureG’s push for ISAC and open foundations
Collins positioned the DoW’s FutureG effort as a rethinking of wireless that blends sensing and communications. He highlighted integrating sensing and communications (ISAC) to support detection of small unmanned aircraft systems and to monitor performance and health — not merely to move data across a network. Collins said government and industry are already prototyping ISAC using 5G and pointed to open-source work such as the Open Centralized Unit Distributed Unit (OCUDU) to reduce costs, encourage competition, foster workforce development, and create a common foundation for future 6G developments. FutureG’s top priorities for the rest of the year, he said, are agile spectrum operations, non‑terrestrial networks, secure and ubiquitous access, and expeditionary and tactical use cases.
David Stepp and Verizon: treating wireless as operational infrastructure
Verizon’s David Stepp described a shift away from a wired-only mindset toward treating wireless as operational infrastructure. He pointed to private 5G deployments at bases and ports and to fixed wireless access and private networks that can be tailored to local environments, helping connect government operations with suppliers and other organizations that share the same infrastructure. Stepp urged agencies to “start with the mission outcome rather than the technology,” arguing that identifying what a network needs to accomplish will reveal solutions available today and smooth the later move from 5G to 6G.
Billy Bob Brown and CISA’s emphasis on resilience, interoperability, and whole-of-nation
CISA’s Brown framed 5G as central to critical‑infrastructure resilience and emergency communications. He outlined a whole-of-nation approach that brings federal, state and local governments together with industry, international partners and critical infrastructure operators. CISA is exploring how 5G will work with non‑terrestrial networks, terrestrial mesh networks, Zero Trust architectures and alternative timing sources, and is collaborating with carriers and cable partners to develop priority wireless capabilities for the national security and emergency preparedness community. Brown stressed that emergency communications cannot rely on a single connectivity method: fiber, terrestrial wireless, mesh networks and non‑terrestrial systems all need to function together. He also described 5G’s potential to support public safety command and control by giving responders access to video, drone feeds and other data during overloaded or damaged infrastructure scenarios.
What this means for warfighters, emergency responders, and base operators
- Warfighters and logistics teams: Expect incremental, mission-focused 5G deployments — from quality-of-life services aboard ships to edge-enabled asset tracking and warehouse automation that can reduce months of work to hours.
- Emergency responders and public-safety planners: Watch CISA’s development of priority wireless capabilities that combine terrestrial, mesh and non‑terrestrial connectivity to keep video, drone feeds and command-and-control data flowing during crises.
- Base and port operators (and their suppliers): Prepare for private 5G and fixed wireless access environments tailored to local operational needs, and plan interoperability with civilian suppliers that share those transport paths.
Across Navy, DoW, CISA and Verizon the through-line is clear: 5G is being built as operational infrastructure for military, logistics, public safety and critical infrastructure missions. Today's deployments — from ISAC prototyping and OCUDU work to a warehouse transformation that cut an eight‑month process to under an hour — are laying workforce, security, standards and operational experience foundations for the move toward 5G advanced and, eventually, 6G. As the panel concluded, success will hinge on keeping the focus on mission outcomes: agencies that combine connectivity with security, interoperability, and resilience, grounded in a clear understanding of mission needs, will be best positioned to turn emerging wireless technologies into real operational advantages.
