India’s Reliance Jio has extended its recently completed 5G national network to the Siachen Glacier, billed as the world’s highest battlefield, in the latest of recent defense-related cellular announcements. This comes at a time of growing deployment of 5G in military scenarios, both on the front line and home training grounds, as well as for research and development. There is demand for advanced capabilities but, at the same time, for proven robust and secure communications, often under challenging conditions for deployment and maintenance. The latter is the case at the Siachen Glacier whose height ranges from 12,000 to 19,000 feet (3,660 to 5,790 meters) in the Kashmiri Himalayas, which has been subject to dispute between by India from Pakistan almost…