Booz Allen Hamilton scored a $99 million contract from the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) to engineer, deploy, and sustain wireless networks aboard government-operated ships. The work will support MSC vessels in the Pacific, Europe, and the U.S with low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, Wi-Fi technologies, and 5G cellular communications.

The contract follows earlier work by the Navy to modernize its connectivity systems. Booz Allen Hamilton previously partnered with Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic on a 5G rapid prototyping effort that tested shipboard and pier-side wireless designs intended to support edge applications and cloud access.

With the new agreement, Booz Allen Hamilton will expand that 5G prototyping to encompass MSC’s wireless efforts by using the company’s capabilities in model-based systems engineering, network engineering, cloud architecture, wireless networking, edge technologies, and cybersecurity. The project aims to improve connectivity for civil service mariners and support mission operations.

“Bridging the connectivity gap at sea and in port is critical, not only to enable the Navy’s warfighting readiness, but also to improve quality of life and crew retention among the thousands of civil service mariners who help keep the fleet mission-ready,” Chris Christou, SVP of Edge/NextG in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Chief Technology Office, explained.

Other wireless and satellite modernization efforts from the DoD are outlined in its Private 5G Deployment Strategy.

When that strategy was released in 2024, then acting DoD CIO Leslie Beavers said the department “must accelerate adoption and implementation of 5G technology to deliver new levels of wireless mobility network performance, capabilities, and efficiencies that contribute to the warfighting capacity and lethality of the Joint Force.”

Hughes last year tested a satellite–open radio access network (RAN) 5G prototype for the DoD, similar to the 5G hybrid approaches the Navy is adopting from Booz Allen Hamilton.