Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic Commanding Officer Nicole Nigro and Executive Director Peter C. Reddy toured Marine Force Storage Command’s 200,000 sq. ft. 5G-enabled warehouse testbed on April 20 at Marine Corps Logistics Base (MCLB) in Albany, Georgia.

As a part of the FutureG/5G initiative of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, NIWC Atlantic is the government’s technical lead spearheading the development of a dual-use, commercially enabled, 5G Smart Warehouse capability at MCLB Albany that aims to deliver a comprehensive, cyber-secure, scalable, 5G-enhanced warehousing system capable of transitioning to new or existing U.S. Marine Corps or other acquisition programs.

More than 250 distinguished guests from over a dozen high-level government agencies visited the site from April 18 to 20. John Larson, NIWC Atlantic team lead for the project, said the current prototype automates warehouse operations for the warfighter via a zero-trust architecture solution, leveraging 5G-enabled capabilities such as modern conveyance solutions, autonomous robotics and machine learning applications. Advanced warehousing and logistics operations, he added, are a lifeline to Marines maneuvering in an expeditionary advanced base operations (EABO) scenario.