NATO turns 5G towers into sensors in Baltic battlefield experiment

NATO tested the use of commercial 5G towers as passive object-detection sensors during DiBaX 2026 in Latvia, held from October 19 to 30. The experiment also evaluated secure military slices of civilian networks and automatic switching between radio, satellite and troposcatter links when communications were disrupted. Allied teams demonstrated a counter-drone engagement involving a target flying from Lithuania into Latvia and used agentic artificial intelligence to connect Maven with a national military system. Conducted alongside counter-UAS and next-generation targeting trials, the event assessed interoperability and resilient communications rather than announcing deployment of an operational alliance-wide sensor network.