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Army Officials Propelling NGC2 Development Forward

Crews at the Capability Program Executive Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors are strengthening the Next-Generation Command and Control infrastructure by integrating sensor data that feeds into its data layer.

Military personnel monitors data in a high-tech command center with multiple screens. Credit: artbot-stock.adobe.com

Crews are working together to develop and enhance NGC2, enabling commanders to make better and more timely decisions. Credit: artbot-stock.adobe.com

Army personnel are bolstering the branch’s effort to overhaul and revolutionize command and control posts. One way that crews at Capability Program Executive Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors (CPE IEW&S) are accomplishing this is by injecting sensor data that feeds into the Next-Generation Command and Control (NGC2) infrastructure data layer. Then, this information feeds into the application layer, enabling commanders to access and obtain information, which ideally leads them to make better decisions more quickly, per Brig. Gen. Kevin Chaney, CPE for IEW&S.

“[Commanders] are able to see the common operating picture, the common intelligence picture, so red and blue. They’re able to see both of those, and that allows them to make more informed decisions,” Chaney said during a media roundtable session on Thursday.

“And then, once they make a decision, it goes down to the transport layer that CPE Command, Control, Communications and Network (C3N) is working on, and then it goes out to the effectors piece,” Chaney added. “Once we have effects on the battlefield, we use our sensors again to do a battle damage assessment, and that feeds back into the beginning of the loop, and the loop starts all over again with commanders making decisions.”

Crews at CPE IEW&S and C3N are working together to develop and enhance NGC2 to make it possible for commanders to make better decisions in a timely manner, according to Chaney.

Fourth Infantry Division officials are experimenting with NGC2 as part of their Ivy Sting series and are focused on scaling the progress of NGC2 from Project Convergence Capstone 5 to Project Convergence Capstone 6, which is scheduled for the summer of 2026. Additionally, 25th Infantry Division officials are collaborating with Lockheed Martin personnel to participate in the Lightning Strike series with the goal of uncovering a different competitive solution to NGC2. Furthermore, 25th Infantry Division soldiers will investigate and analyze the data layer and application pieces.

“Our job is really to support those events, integrating the sensors and using the transport piece to get into the data layer,” Chaney said. “And then [asking] how they’re going to decide what the appropriate C2 stack looks like and the partnership going forward.”