The U.S. Army will expand the fielding of its Next Generation Command and Control prototype beyond the two infantry divisions that have tested the system for the past year. Army I Corps, headquartered in Washington state, will be the next major unit to receive core components of the NGC2 ecosystem. The system is designed to provide commanders with a data-heavy, interconnected network of hardware and software to accelerate decision-making against sophisticated adversaries [1].
During the Project Convergence Capstone 6 exercise at Fort Irwin’s National Training Center in late July 2026, about 10,000 soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division tested more than 90 technologies within the NGC2 framework [1]. Acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve called the exercise a success but noted the service will discard systems that failed to perform in the harsh desert environment. Soldiers reported that some hardware overheated, connectivity issues occurred and certain applications did not display necessary data [1].
C2 portfolio acquisition executive Joe Welch said the four-part NGC2 stack — transport, infrastructure, data and application layers — will deliver to additional units, while specific underperforming components may not move forward. “I do think that the availability of what we’re doing at a data layer, at an app layer at higher echelons, that’s more straightforward to provide than when we’re talking about needing to get the specific radios, tactical edge compute devices, etc., down at echelon,” Welch said [1].
The Army has requested nearly $4 billion for NGC2 in next year’s budget [1], building on the roughly $3 billion requested across procurement and research-and-development accounts in fiscal 2026 [2]. The service has consolidated command and control resources into a combined capability portfolio and is using existing funding to support equipping and experimentation at the division level while introducing competition for commercial capabilities [2].
In June 2026, the Army selected Anduril Industries to lead the common data layer baseline for NGC2 [3]. The decision is part of a 10-year enterprise contract worth up to $20 billion awarded to Anduril in March 2026 [4]. Anduril’s Lattice software will serve as the command-and-control backbone, integrating data, applications and AI models across the force. Lockheed Martin, which previously led the full-stack implementation for the 25th Infantry Division, will now transition into an implementation role for Anduril’s baseline data layer [3].
Anduril and Palantir will remain partnered for an edge-to-cloud data mesh that incorporates Lattice and Palantir’s Foundry system. Anduril’s team also includes Microsoft, Striveworks, Govini, Instant Connect Enterprise and Research Innovations Inc. [4]. The $20 billion enterprise contract was structured as an ordering vehicle allowing any federal buyer to access Anduril’s commercially developed products, with the Army serving as the centralizing agent for DoD spend [4].
The shift toward NGC2 represents a fundamental departure from the large, static command posts used during the Global War on Terror. Army officials have stated that employing such command posts against modern adversaries with advanced remote sensing and drone capabilities would be “suicidal” [5]. The new command post nodes are smaller, more mobile and dispersed to reduce electromagnetic and physical signatures. Soldiers at 4th ID described the nodes as forming a redundant communications network — if one node is struck, traffic routes through another [5].
Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, 4th ID commander, said the division a year ago operated from three large command post nodes anchored by satellite dishes. “Because we got rid of that requirement, we no longer have to collate around these satellite dishes. We can now command and control from everywhere,” Ellis said [5]. He described the system’s current state as “ready, but not done,” citing ongoing friction points the service must continue to address before broad fielding [1].
The Pacific-focused I Corps will play a critical evaluation role as NGC2 scales, assessing new C2 capabilities beyond the 4th ID and 25th ID testbeds. The integration of Anduril’s Lattice platform will be a central requirement for any emerging technology seeking entry into the C2 ecosystem as the Army moves toward force-wide fielding.
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