In collaboration with the 25th Infantry Division (25ID), CPE C3N, multiple U.S. Army stakeholders and several industry partners including Raft and Accelint, Lockheed Martin delivered and successfully demonstrated the first iteration of a Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) prototype at Lightning Surge 1 (LS1), the company announced January 23. The 25th Infantry Division is one of two Army Divisions selected to experiment with NGC2 capabilities.
NGC2 is the U.S. Army’s effort to fundamentally change how digital mission command is conducted, utilizing a common data layer to provide a continuous common operating picture with a single, integrated view of the battlefield to enable swift and decisive action.
Lockheed Martin is leading an NGC2 prototype effort to provide the Army with warfighting data for decision dominance by unifying it in a single common data layer. Lockheed Martin’s NGC2 prototype will operate on the 25ID’s existing transport and compute environment, which will extend across echelons, from Division to Platoon and from cloud to edge.
During Lightning Surge 1, the Lockheed Martin team showcased the rapid deployment of prototype capability, only one month after representative NGC2 hardware was delivered and installed to the 25ID’s Home Station Mission Command Lab.
To enable commanders and warfighters to make decisions more rapidly, the Lockheed Martin team delivered the foundation of the 25ID’s NGC2 prototype with a common data layer augmented by artificial intelligence (AI) tools, one of which enables voice and chat natural language processing for spot reporting.
The common data layer provides the U.S. Army with improved command and control capabilities. Once information is updated in the data layer, it is updated everywhere, in real time, with no more “swivel chair” manual processes. When seconds matter most, that time difference is critical.
“Our goal during the NGC2 Lightning Surge events is to prove speed and warfighter centered development at every step,” said Chandra Marshall, vice president at Lockheed Martin. “Our team is focused on strong collaboration with the Army and the best of industry partners, while remaining flexible, iterating in real time and accelerating the delivery of capability.”
Source: Lockheed Martin
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