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As more drones share the same airspace, keeping them connected becomes increasingly difficult. Unmanned aircraft may need to exchange high-resolution video, sensor information and control data in real time, while conventional radio bands can become crowded or deliberately disrupted. On the battlefield, every transmission can also create an electronic signature that an adversary may detect.
Peraso is proposing 60 GHz millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications as another option for connecting unmanned systems. The technology combines wide bandwidth with directional beamforming to create focused, low-latency wireless links between platforms.
Unlike a conventional radio that spreads energy broadly around an antenna, beamforming concentrates the signal toward the intended receiver. At 60 GHz, the short wavelength allows compact antenna arrays to produce particularly narrow beams.
According to NextGenDefense, that approach provides two important advantages for drones. First, the available bandwidth can support high-capacity data transmission with low latency, useful when aircraft need to send video or other sensor information without significant delays. Second, concentrating the transmission in a particular direction reduces how much radio energy spreads elsewhere.
This does not make the signal invisible or immune to interception, but it can reduce unnecessary signal exposure and interference compared with less directional communications.
The technology is primarily intended for focused, line-of-sight connections. That means the communicating platforms generally need an unobstructed path between them, and the system must continuously manage the beam as aircraft move relative to one another.
The company says its hardware and software can also support identification friend-or-foe (IFF) functions, providing another way for operators or autonomous systems to distinguish friendly platforms from potential threats.
Size and power consumption are particularly important for small UAVs, where every additional communications component competes with sensors and batteries for limited payload capacity. They are therefore developing the architecture around compact, low-power hardware suitable for smaller unmanned platforms.
The defense relevance comes from the increasingly congested electromagnetic environment. Many existing drone communications operate below 6 GHz, where military and civilian systems compete for spectrum and electronic-warfare systems can deliberately interfere with links. Moving some communications into the 60 GHz band provides access to a different part of the spectrum while directional transmission can help limit interference from other directions.
The company and its strategic partner iNTACT plan to demonstrate the technology at the UAV Technology Conference in London on September 21st-22nd, 2026, including drone identification and communications applications.
The approach is not a universal replacement for conventional radio. Higher-frequency mmWave signals can be affected by obstacles and atmospheric conditions, while narrow beams require accurate alignment and tracking.
Instead, 60 GHz communications offer another tool for missions where drones need to move large amounts of information quickly without broadcasting their signals as widely as traditional links. As autonomous aircraft generate more data and operate in increasingly crowded electromagnetic environments, how narrowly they communicate may become almost as important as how far.
