Why battlefield logistics now depends on the network

When we think of military logistics, the image that comes to mind is almost always the same: trucks, dirt roads, warehouses, forklifts. Moving ammunition, fuel or spare parts from one place to another still relies on tires and asphalt, no question about that. But on a modern battlefield, where drones and satellites are constantly looking down, moving that equipment safely depends on something far less visible: how quickly the logistics system can receive, process and share information.

That's really the core idea behind this piece: modern logistics isn't only about moving physical resources. It's also about moving information fast enough to keep those resources alive.

Hedgehog 2025, a NATO exercise held in Estonia in May 2025, offered a concrete illustration of a problem that has become increasingly hard to ignore. The exercise wasn't designed specifically to test transport operations. But at some point, the organizers integrated Ukrainian drone operators into the opposing force, people drawing on recent battlefield experience. And it became clear that moving supply convoys along predictable routes is a serious problem when someone on the other side is watching, jamming communications and reacting in real time.

Secondary accounts of the exercise describe a small force, around ten operators and more than thirty drones, exposing how quickly a large formation can become vulnerable once it is detected, tracked and targeted faster than it can react.

On the OPFOR side, drones spotted a convoy, and that information could turn into a strike within minutes. On the allied side, the picture looked different: sensors detect something, the data travels up to command, command analyzes it and sends new instructions back down. If the OPFOR could move from detection to action in minutes, a response chain involving several layers of command could take significantly longer. The public record doesn't quantify that gap precisely, but the direction matches what after-action analysis describes: a logistics system receiving orders ("go here, at this time") without seeing what's actually happening around it.

It's a bit like a children's game: blindfolded, following spoken directions to reach a destination. You know the planned route, you don't know what's happening real-time: if a bridge is down in the mean time, or if someone has already spotted you.

Consider a simple, hypothetical scenario: a convoy leaves at 8:00 AM on a route marked safe. At 8:20, a drone spots enemy movement right on that road. By 8:25, the situation has changed completely. If the warning to change route only reaches the convoy at 9:00, the original plan may already be compromised.

And this is why the term transparent battlefield is becoming increasingly common. It doesn't mean the enemy sees literally everything, everywhere, all the time. Rather, it means that the combination of drones, satellite imagery and distributed sensors makes it hard to assume that being behind the lines equals being safe.

Looking at the vulnerabilities exposed by the exercise, three issues stand out. They point to the same broader pattern: logistics depends on communications, but the two are often planned and operated as separate functions.

1. Logistics moved without situational awareness. Convoys received orders from above, but had no direct line into what sensors and drones were seeing in real time. They followed a route because command deemed it safe hours earlier, not because they could confirm it was still safe now.
2. The decision chain was long. Spotting a threat and acting on it is only useful if the gap between the two stays short. When information has to climb a hierarchy and come back down before a convoy can change course, the threat has often already acted.
3. Jamming response could still require manual intervention. Allied units may operate with PACE (Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency) plans, which define fallback communication methods when the primary link is degraded or unavailable. In a contested environment, switching between those methods can still require a person to notice the failure and select a new channel, unless automated failover is built into the architecture.

Traditionally, logistics has worked as a chain: a large depot supplies a smaller hub, which supplies the troops at the front. It's a model that works well as long as things stay stable. If a bridge is destroyed, a radio line goes dead, or a command post is isolated, the chain breaks, and everything downstream stops with it.

A network behaves differently. This is where mesh networking comes in. Picture a group of people trying to communicate inside a large building. If everyone can only speak to one central point, that point becomes a bottleneck: if it goes silent, nobody knows what's happening. If people can also talk directly to each other, passing information along, it finds an alternative route.

None of this makes the system indestructible on its own: a mesh only delivers resilience if it's properly designed and maintained. But it multiplies the paths information can take when one of them fails.

This changes the role of the vehicles themselves. Normally, a truck is the last link in the chain: it gets the order, drives, delivers, reports back. But equip that truck with the right gear, and it becomes a network node. It can communicate with nearby vehicles, relay data, and share its real-time position. The convoy stops being just a group of vehicles traveling together and becomes mobile communications infrastructure. The network is no longer a distant tower you hope to connect to: it travels with you.

One technology built for exactly this within the 5G ecosystem is IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul). IAB allows a 5G node to provide radio access to nearby devices while using a wireless link to connect back to the network, without laying fiber in the middle of a forest. Each connected node can extend the path without needing a physical cable all the way back to the core, a bit like extending a bridge one section at a time.

What happens if the enemy turns on their jammers and cuts the signal entirely?

This is where multi-link architectures matter. It works a bit like a smartphone: leave the house, lose Wi-Fi, and the phone switches to cellular data without anyone noticing. A software-defined multi-link architecture can, for example, shift traffic from a private 5G link to satellite or tactical radio when the primary path becomes unavailable.

PACE plans follow a similar logic on paper: if one method fails, move to the next. What can change is how that switch happens. Traditionally, it required a person to notice the failure and select a new channel by hand. A software-defined system can check signal quality continuously and reroute automatically, when that capability is built into the architecture.

The goal isn't to remove soldiers from the loop; it's to stop them from having to adjust network settings while under fire.

There's one more piece to this: what happens to all the data once it's collected. Load trucks with cameras and sensors, then try to send all that raw footage back to central command, and the network clogs almost immediately.

That's what edge computing solves. Instead of streaming hours of high-resolution video of an empty road, an onboard computer analyzes the footage locally. When it spots something relevant, it can send command a small amount of relevant information, for example coordinates, an object classification and a selected image.

Far less data moves across the network, and what does move is exactly what's needed for a decision in the moment.

To address these specific mobility and connectivity requirements, SMA-RTY developed the NGCI (Next-Generation Communication Infrastructure). Instead of relying exclusively on permanent infrastructure, NGCI enables private 5G connectivity to be deployed where it is needed, creating local coverage areas that can connect dynamically to the wider network.

The concept can be adapted to different operational environments, from more persistent installations to highly transportable configurations designed for teams operating in the field. The important point is not simply to put a 5G cell in a new location. It is to combine connectivity, computing and network management in a system that can move with the operation.

None of this removes the need for trucks, fuel or roads. You can't download a crate of artillery shells over Wi-Fi. But on a transparent battlefield, moving those resources safely increasingly depends on how quickly the network can sense a change, share it and support a new decision.