The Military Isn't Sure Whether 5G Cell Phones Interfere with its Planes
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21 Jan 2022
Coffee or Die Magazine | By Dustin Jones
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Few things are more important to aviators than the space between their aircraft and the ground. And the one device that pilots on nearly all modern planes rely on to tell them how high they are — a radar altimeter — may be vulnerable to interference from the latest 5G cell phone networks.
The problem lies with the radio frequencies that the latest 5G cell phone technology, rolled out this week by Verizon and AT&T, operates on. As with all cell phones, tiny radios in 5G phones will talk to massive radios mounted on cell towers. But unlike in previous cell phone generations, the frequency they will use is nearly the same as the radio waves that radar altimeters use to measure a plane’s altitude. Radar altimeters, which are sometimes called radio altimeters, are a key component of all modern commercial planes, feeding data to the autopilot, collision avoidance, and other key flight systems as well as the pilot himself. Almost all military planes use radar altimeters as well, though their vulnerability is not as clear.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/01/21/military-isnt-sure-whether-5g-cell-phones-interfere-its-planes.html
