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Army Requests Industry Feedback for Next Generation Command and Control Prototyping

The U.S. Army is seeking guidance from industry experts to provide the best generation of command and control capabilities.

U.S. Army soldiers assigned to 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, move toward their objective on Malamute Drop Zone in Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, for Arctic Aloha on October 15, 2024. Credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brandon Vasquez

The U.S. Army Contracting Command-Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) and the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications and Network (PEO C3N) released a request for information on January 13 to seek industry feedback on the Army’s next-generation command and control (NGC2) competitive prototyping.

The Army plans to rapidly award contracts for prototyping NGC2 by May to provide commanders and units an open and modular C2 ecosystem across hardware and software, according to a January 14 press release.

The goal of NGC2 is to organize and operationalize data for warfighting applications, including real-time modeling of potential outcomes based on decisions during action, the release stated.

“Market research and industry feedback is key to shaping smart contracts,” Danielle Moyer, executive director of ACC-APG, said in the release. “We not only want to make sure we have the appropriate criteria to select the best affordable solutions, but that we are really keying in on post-award. By appropriately aligning incentives and disincentives to drive the right behaviors and competition from the awardees long term, we’ll ensure that we’re not only getting the best deal, but the best solutions.”

According to the posted request for information, the plan is to deliver initial prototypes within six months of awarding the contracts.

The Army emphasized in its request for information, released on sam.gov, that the government intends to incorporate vendor teams to provide extra components and layers to the prototype solutions because just one company would not be able to deliver the NGC2 technology the Army seeks.

Specifically, the Army is looking for industry feedback on draft prototype statement of objectives and draft indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity performance work statements, according to the release.

The request for proposals is tentatively planned for late February, and the goal is to generate industry feedback throughout each stage of the contracting process as well as the evolution of the capabilities.

According to the press release, the current critical capability areas for NGC2 focus on mission partner interoperability, tactical communications operations and an integrated approach that reaches from communications to the layers of compute, integrated data and application.

“Contracting and delivery of next generation command and control capabilities will be deliberate and iterative, geared toward commander needs and dependent upon the innovation of industry,” Mark Kitz, PEO C3N, said via the release. “This [request for information] is another step in continuous iteration with industry and operational users, so that as the Army responds to changing missions, we can rapidly bring in the right capabilities to deliver operationally relevant solutions.”

Industry must respond to the request for information by 4 p.m. ET on January 23 by answering the provided questions on sam.gov and emailing the responses to Contracting Officer Eric Roberts, eric.j.roberts48.civ@army.mil, and Contracting Specialist Maj. Quentin Sica, quentin.sica.mil@army.mil.