US FutureG Office funds 11 teams to build sensing-and-communications prototypes
The RAPID programme puts more than $50 million into integrated sensing and communications prototypes over 24 months, with operators, RAN vendors and universities on the teams.
The FutureG Office of the US Department of War has awarded more than $50 million to 11 teams under RAPID (Real-world Application Prototyping for ISAC Demonstrations). The programme funds prototypes of integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), in which a radio network also detects and tracks objects. According to Military & Aerospace Electronics, the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC) announced the awards on 3 November 2026 and issued them through its Spectrum Forward Other Transaction Authority. Nearly 30 companies and universities take part, and the NSC estimates that about two thirds are small businesses or nontraditional defence contractors.
The teams include AT&T with Ericsson, Parallel Wireless with Andro and Virginia Tech, Leidos with Tiami Networks, and Nokia Federal with Future Tech, Texas Tech University, AT&T, DeepSig and Hidden Level. Projects run for 24 months in two phases: laboratory or field demonstrations first, then prototypes intended for military and commercial deployment. When the solicitation opened in June, ExecutiveGov reported that proposals had to integrate or interoperate with the OCUDU open-source RAN software baseline where required.
At a panel reported by Mobile World Live, FutureG senior technical adviser Scott Fox said OFDM struggles in high-mobility, high-Doppler conditions and that the department is funding tests of alternative waveforms. Military & Aerospace Electronics notes that the announcement gives no operating frequencies, sensing ranges or accuracy figures for any team.
Why it matters
Most published ISAC results are simulations. A funded two-year programme with operators and RAN vendors on the teams should produce measurements on real radios, including multistatic setups like the AT&T and Ericsson drone-tracking demonstration described at the same panel. The details to watch are the bands and bandwidths each team uses, because range resolution improves with signal bandwidth. Also watch whether the OCUDU baseline makes the software reusable outside defence. Until the teams publish, treat capability claims as plans, not results.