FORT BELVOIR, Va. (July 8, 2025) — Soldiers must quickly decipher an increasingly large amount of real-time battlefield data as they build and execute their mission plans. To enable better and faster battlefield decisions, U.S. Army researchers are developing a set of applications to analyze battlefield data to provide decision dominance and greater lethality.

These new applications, known collectively as Project Odin, monitor live data feeds, unit locations, sensor coverage, fuel, maintenance and ammunition status, weather, terrain, and more. They synthesize all this real-time information to understand and predict adversary actions, and enable commanders and staff to outpace their adversaries’ maneuvers and decisions.

The Army’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center leverages advances in artificial intelligence and real-time sensor data processing, according to Odin’s Project Lead Ben Rosen. C5ISR Center received feedback in July 2022 — the Army needed a Commanders decision tool to enable warfighting concepts and facilitate synchronization, lethality and flexibility.

“We developed a proof of concept within a year and immediately began an aggressive experimentation campaign to inform our development cycles from then on out. Being focused on capability gaps, the plan was to insert ourselves and live directly in the problem space,” Rosen said. “The burden on staffs to process all this battlefield data can slow down decisions. Project Odin speeds up the process to a fraction of the time.

“The program ingests battlefield information, analyzes it, and provides knowledge for Commanders to apply judgment, then decide and act faster than the adversary.”

Senior Army leaders are recognizing the benefits of emerging AI tech in expanding the possibilities of next-generation battlefield command and control tools. Gen. James Rainey, Army Futures Command commanding general, said during an AI summit last year: “The real potential for military application of artificial intelligence is to empower our commanders — the men and women who lead our formations. And how do we bring the power of AI to bear to let them do three things: make more decisions, make better decisions and make faster decisions?”

For the Army to accelerate Project Odin’s transition from R&D to a capability ready for Soldiers, C5ISR Center subject-matter experts are working directly with multiple units during experimentation events, such as Project Convergence and Transformation in Contact rotations.

“The Center’s S&T expertise is essential to delivering these tools to units. We combine technical experience, ability to interact with Soldiers in the field, partner with other Army R&D organizations, and quickly incorporate operational feedback for further improvements,” Rosen said.

Teaming the S&T community with units for persistent experimentation has been successful, as the Secretary of the Army wrote in the Army’s Posture Statement to Congress in May: “Feedback from TiC participants validated that our formations can evolve quickly when we pair the skill of developers with the warfighting ingenuity of soldiers. By adjusting how they organized and employed equipment, TiC units were able to more effectively see the battlespace, strike, and maneuver against opponent forces in training.”

Project Odin capabilities are hosted as applications on mission-command platforms such as the Android Tactical Assault Kit, commonly known as ATAK. By leveraging existing infrastructure and the Next Generation Command and Control data layer, the need for standalone single-use software across the force is eliminated.

“Odin is helping inform the Operational Modeling Tool annex to NGC2,” Rosen said. “We’re rapidly developing and experimenting to with NGC2 in mind, asking ourselves how we can leverage the NGC2 data layer to better understand the battlespace with a set of applications and services that work in concert with the overall NGC2 ecosystem.”

C5ISR Center has partnered with Army Research Laboratory and Army Corps of Engineers to take advantage of their areas of expertise in artificial intelligence, terrain data and digital modeling. The Army team has transitioned the capabilities from a concept to a fielded system in the hands of units in two years.

Experimentation with active-duty units continues to inform the program’s concepts and identify gaps.

“Project Odin quickens tactical decision cycles by removing the cognitive burden of monitoring highly synchronized plans and increasingly complex battlefields,” said Maj. Aaron Phillips, who used Odin during a recent Joint Readiness Training Center rotation. “This allows Commanders and their staffs to focus on selecting their next action, rather than tracking their current and past actions.”

Odin’s individual software components are at different levels of technical maturity, according to Steve Webster, the project’s technical lead at C5ISR Center. Some features are ready for Soldiers to use today during experimentation events like Project Convergence or Transformation in Contact rotations.

“We also have more advanced software under development earlier in the technology readiness pipeline that needs more development but is actively being informed by the experimentation we’re doing with the more mature services,” Webster said. “All of these efforts help us both in delivering capability and informing the needs for NGC2’s Operational Modeling Tools.”

One such capability in the R&D phase is Course of Action Generation, which continuously compares planned actions to real-time data — such as environmental conditions, available combat power and enemy position — to create new recommendations that guide staff to the best decisions. These Course of Action generation tools analyze information much faster than is possible for humans.

“Project Odin delivers on the Army’s need for a more data-centric command and control platform during a time of rapid technology advancements. Smarter, faster decision-making delivers lethality for Soldiers,” Webster said.

By Dan Lafontaine, C5ISR Center Public Affairs

FORT IRWIN, Calif. (March 11, 2025) – The Army’s Next Generation Command and Control effort is reaching a critical milestone at Project Convergence Capstone 5, where commanders and Soldiers are employing new capabilities in realistic mission scenarios and conditions.

Next Generation Command and Control, known as NGC2, aims to provide the integrated information framework that commanders need to make rapid decisions across warfighting functions, giving them an edge over adversaries. NGC2 will also enable Army tactical units to operate faster and more dispersed by providing lighter, more mobile and survivable network and C2 equipment.

“What we’re trying to do is take these emerging technologies where we can get this data better and faster to execute,” said Lt. Col. Tad Coleman, commander of the 2-37 Armor Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division (1/1 AD). “The technology in Next Generation C2 is the stuff a majority of people are seeing and already doing (in their daily lives). It’s just that now, it’s at the fingertips of the commander.”

After a year of NGC2 technical experimentation in lab and field environments, the Project Convergence Capstone 5 (PCC5) experiment taking place within the operational rigors of the National Training Center is serving as a “proof of principle” for the Army to assess progress with the approach before transitioning to prototyping.

NGC2 is focused at the 3-star headquarters and below to provide a “full stack” of capabilities from applications to edge compute and tactical communications links. At PCC5, the 1/1AD, 82nd Airborne Division, and 18th Airborne Corps are utilizing elements of NGC2 experimental capabilities to execute offensive and defensive operations at speed, scale, and distance, attempting to achieve shared understanding of the battlefield and improve decision-making at all echelons.

Although early in the experiment, Soldiers and leaders at PCC5 said they saw the value of NGC2 in providing faster communications, smaller form factors, more complete data across warfighting functions, and ease of training and use as compared with legacy systems.

“It is really good information that is passed a lot faster,” said Staff Sgt. Paul Johnson, a section sergeant in Alpha Company, 2-37 Armor Battalion.

At PCC5, NGC2 experimental technology – including applications, data infrastructure, software, and hardware such as tablets, end user devices, and mobile communications equipment – has been integrated onto the armor battalion’s tactical vehicles, as well as brigade, division, and corps nodes. However, Army officials emphasized that the equipment at PCC5 is not a final product, and solutions will continue to evolve based on upcoming prototype contract awards and continuous iteration of requirements and user input.

The ability to avoid vendor lock, and flexibility to make quick changes to functionality based on Soldier needs, are key Army priorities in developing the NGC2 approach. Even ahead of PCC5, Army Futures Command made updates based on Soldier feedback received from 1/1 AD at a touchpoint in January.

“We were able to generate more Soldier feedback, and since we’ve been out here (at Project Convergence) we’ve actually seen a lot of that integrated and incorporated,” said Capt. Nathan Kraemer, brigade AS3 (operations officer), 1/1 AD. “It’s very intuitive, the functionality of it. That really opened our eyes, and everyone was excited to use this. Now, we are just seeing how it can contribute, take effect, and change the way we fight.”

Breaking down information siloes and stovepipes across warfighting functions, locations, and echelons for a common understanding of the battlefield has the potential to significantly change operations, users said.

“I fully believe that you cannot win any war without communications,” said Sfc. Victor Norman-Morris, a communications section chief in 2-37 Armor Battalion. “I don’t care if it’s bullets, logistics – if you can’t talk to whoever you’re trying to, to get whatever you need, you’re not going to be able to do it. At every echelon, everybody (must be) able to talk and sync and be on the same page so we can continue moving forward and completing our missions successfully.”

For example, Sfc. Joshua Holland, a platoon sergeant in Alpha Company, 2-37 Armor Battalion, said using NGC2 at PCC5 enabled him to gather more real-time data to “paint a picture” of the battlefield that provided greater situational awareness to his platoon leader.

“She can control everything that she has to control, and I can continue to paint that picture, and the system I’m [using] right now is making it a lot easier to do that in a quicker time,” Holland said. “You can get a visual image of something and simultaneously share that with your counterparts. Even if it’s something simple like sending a message saying, ‘Hey, can you see this?’ and you share it and it’s an immediate response back and forth.”

Project Convergence is the Army’s premier experimentation event that brings operational units and industry teams together in a complex real world operational environment to test ideas, concepts, and promising technology. The lessons and observations captured during PCC5 will directly inform Army decisions to refine requirements documents, prioritize funding, and invest to accelerate promising technologies.

For NGC2, the operational feedback received through PCC5 will inform updates to requirements including the Capability Characteristics of Need (CoN) document, which is consistently updated to reflect the evolving needs of the warfighter and technology progress.

NGC2 is executed in partnership by the Army Futures Command (AFC) and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASA(ALT)). The AFC product owner and ASA(ALT) program manager will work together to plan and rapidly execute capability drops in concert with the operational force.

By Claire Heininger, U.S. Army Futures Command C2 CFT