Mobile phone towers could soon double as radars for drones. During a NATO exercise in Latvia, operators tested whether 5G antennas already installed in cities could detect and track flying objects, particularly hostile drones. The results were partial, but promising enough to keep allies and companies pursuing the approach.
How the tested system works
The trial took place within the Digital Backbone Experimentation programme, known as DiBaX 2026, which NATO ran between 19 and 30 October. The goal was to check whether towers could passively detect moving objects within network coverage, especially in dense urban areas. According to Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, the system was designed with the help of AI agents to overcome interoperability barriers between systems never built to communicate.
Three methods of using commercial 5G were tested alongside the United States, Canada, Germany, Finland, Lithuania and other allies. Some tests did not work as expected: during one simulation the system briefly lost track of a drone launch site it was following. For NATO, such failures are useful because they show what needs fixing.
The American case
In the United States, AT&T and Ericsson demonstrated a similar system outside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The test detected and located drones flying between 300 and 400 feet, roughly 90 to 120 metres, inside the network's coverage area and followed their movements. The venue was not chosen at random: large stadiums and crowded public spaces are sensitive targets, and spotting low-flying drones early is one of the hardest problems to solve.
Ericsson presents the system as integrated sensing and communication, meaning a network that carries data and, at the same time, perceives objects around it. According to the company, small sensing-only commercial pilots are expected to begin in 2027, with wider deployments following in 2028.
Why it matters for defence
The advantage is clear: cellular networks cover most nations and the antennas already exist, so the extra cost of using them as sensors would be modest compared with a new network of dedicated radars. Using several networks also adds resilience, since a fault in one part of the system does not disable the whole detection capability.
A critical point remains. 5G towers would become more attractive targets, because an attack on a network serving both communications and surveillance would have wider consequences. It is the dilemma that accompanies every attempt to reuse civilian infrastructure for military purposes.
The picture fits into a race already under way. Ukraine has extended the use of artificial intelligence from drones to missiles, and in Italy the army organised a challenge in Rome between civilian and military FPV drone pilots. For now, NATO's bet is simpler: turn what already exists, the operators' antennas, into an early-warning network against drones.
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