NATO Trials in Latvia Test Commercial 5G Masts as Drone Sensors

NATO has tested whether ordinary commercial 5G towers can passively detect and track drones, running the trials in Latvia between October 19 and 30 under an exercise called DiBaX 2026. The results point toward a new defense role for existing telecom infrastructure, with little extra investment required.

The exercise, formally named the Digital Backbone Experimentation exercise, asked a direct question: can cellular masts built for consumer traffic double as battlefield sensors? NATO investigated whether 5G towers could detect and track flying objects without any dedicated radar hardware. Latvia conducted the work alongside the United States, Canada, Germany, Finland, Lithuania and other allies.

What did the AI agents actually do?

The most unusual detail is the origin of the tested solution. NATO says AI agents designed it. Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, described the result: "We have connected systems that were never designed to communicate with each other, using artificial intelligence to overcome interoperability barriers."

He added: "It's the first time that we have, for example, a Maven system that is speaking to a national system, and that has been fixed in hours with Agentic AI."

Three methods of using commercial 5G were tested during the two-week exercise. Some tests failed. The organizers themselves framed those failures as a source of lessons rather than a setback, which is standard practice in early experimentation of this kind.

If the approach matures, existing large-scale telecommunications networks would gain a second purpose: enhancing national security. NATO also sees a resilience benefit, because multiple networks and satellites would overlap, giving the alliance some protection against disruption of any single layer.

What happened in Texas?

A parallel demonstration took place in the United States. AT&T and Ericsson showed "drone detection using advanced network sensing over a 5G network" near AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas — the venue chosen, apparently, because large sporting events can attract terrorist attacks.

According to the official announcement, the system detected and located multiple drones and then tracked their movement. The drones flew at altitudes between 300 and 400 feet within the coverage area. The companies say the sensing technology can "support new levels of low altitude threat detection and tracking around major venues, public spaces and other complex environments."

The Arlington demo also carries a forward-looking technical signal. It is described as an early taste of 6G technology, which officially includes both communications and sensing as native functions rather than add-ons.

Why does this matter now?

Drones and counter-drone systems have become central to current armed conflicts, with rapid development this year in Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East. Defense establishments worldwide now treat drone defense as a priority rather than a niche.

Against that backdrop, reusing the cellular networks that already blanket most countries looks like a clear gain. The marginal cost is low because the masts, antennas and backhaul already exist. There is an obvious counterweight: 5G masts would become even more attractive targets in any serious conflict, since disabling them would degrade both civilian communications and military sensing at once.

Both experiments delivered promising results, and the direction of travel is clear. If 5G and later 6G sensing piggybacks on commercial masts at scale, defense agencies gain a low-cost detection grid — while network operators and their insurers will need to weigh what it means to host military-grade sensing on civilian towers.