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Air Force Experiments with AI, Boosts Battle Management Speed, Accuracy

Saturday, October 11th, 2025

LAS VEGAS (AFNS) —

The Air Force wrapped up the second Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming, known as DASH 2, a fast-paced experiment exploring how artificial intelligence can help operators make faster, smarter decisions in complex battlespaces.

DASH 2 took place at the Shadow Operations Center-Nellis’ unclassified location in downtown Las Vegas and was led by the Advanced Battle Management System Cross-Functional Team.The effort was conducted in partnership with the Air Force Research Lab’s 711th Human Performance Wing, the Integrated Capabilities Command and the 805th Combat Training Squadron, also known as the ShOC-N.

“DASH 2 proved human-machine teaming is no longer theoretical,” said Col. Jonathan Zall, ABMS Capability Integration chief. “By fusing operator judgment with AI speed, the Air Force is shaping the future of decision advantage in joint and coalition operations.”

AI Speeds Decision Advantage

Initial results showed that machines produced recommendations in less than ten seconds and generated 30 times more options than human-only teams. Two vendors each produced more than 6,000 solutions for roughly 20 problems in just one hour. The software’s accuracy was on par with human performance, despite only two weeks of development. In one case, a single algorithm adjustment would have raised recommendation validity from 70 percent to more than 90 percent.

“This level of output gives commanders options to execute multiple kill chains simultaneously and we’re excited about our next experiment to generate the courses of action with the machines to help illuminate risk, opportunity gain/loss, material gain/loss, among others,” said Col. John Ohlund, ABMS CFT director.

Inside DASH 2

The DASH series is part of the Air Force’s campaign to modernize command and control and gain decision advantage through human-machine teaming. Each sprint refines a specific decision function and informs future Department of the Air Force C2 development. The series also supports the Pentagon’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative.

“Human-machine teaming is critical to accelerating the speed and quality of decisions across the joint force, and DASH 2 provides the insights we need to make that a reality,” Zall said.

Human-Machine Teaming in Action

Seven teams participated in DASH 2, including six industry teams and one ShOC-N innovation team. Their challenge was to design AI-enabled microservices capable of assisting operators with the “match effectors” function, which determines the best available weapon system to destroy an identified target.

Developers observed battle management crews operating without machine assistance, then iteratively designed and tested tools to augment human decision-making. Final demonstrations compared human-only performance against human-machine performance, measuring speed, quantity and quality.

“Being part of DASH 2 showed us how human-machine teaming can enhance performance without losing operator judgment,” said Capt. Steven Mohan III, 726th Air Control Squadron chief of standards and evaluations.

Industry and Air Force Collaboration

Evaluation focused on whether these tools helped operators make more effective decisions, not just process more data.

DASH 2 also reaffirmed the value of co-development with both industry and Air Force developers. Companies retained intellectual property rights while the Air Force gained insight into integration and functional requirements for future C2 software.

“At the ShOC-N, our mission is to put new capabilities into operators’ hands and test them under conditions that resemble real-world battle management,” said Lt. Col. Shawn Finney, 805th CTS/ShOC-N commander. “DASH 2 demonstrated how the battle lab enables rigorous testing while maintaining operational fidelity, bridging the gap between concept and capability.”

Early Results and Lessons Learned

The 711th HPW collected data on operator performance, workload and teaming dynamics. Findings confirmed that AI can accelerate decision-making while keeping humans at the center of the process.

“Collaboration with AFRL, the ABMS program office and industry allowed us to rapidly experiment, refine requirements and accelerate the path from concept to capability delivery,” Ohlund said.

Shaping the Future of C2

The DASH series is a key step in modernizing Air Force command and control. By combining human judgment with AI, the service is preparing operators to make faster, more informed decisions in future contested environments.

“DASH 2 proved human-machine teaming is no longer theoretical,” Zall said. “By fusing operator judgment with AI speed, the Air Force is shaping the future of decision advantage in joint and coalition operations.”

By Deb Henley, 505th Command and Control Wing Public Affairs

805th Combat Training Squadron, also known as the Shadow Operations Center-Nellis

Posted in AI / ML, Air Force, C5ISR, Guest Post | Comments Off on Air Force Experiments with AI, Boosts Battle Management Speed, Accuracy

How Anduril and the Army Are Rewriting Fire Missions with NGC2

Thursday, October 2nd, 2025

Only eight weeks after Anduril was awarded a $99.6 million prototype Other Transaction Authority agreement for the Army’s Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2), the 4th Infantry Division became the first unit to use NGC2 in live fire training. The event, known as Ivy Sting 1, demonstrated a division-level targeting process running entirely on Anduril’s Lattice Mesh and Palantir’s Target Workbench (TWB) from headquarters down to the gun line—firing faster, more reliably, and more resiliently than legacy systems.

NGC2 is the Army’s initiative to modernize the command and control ecosystem. Built on an open, modular architecture, NGC2 connects the entire battlefield—soldiers, sensors, vehicles, and commanders—with resilient, real-time data. Anduril leads the effort alongside partners Palantir, Striveworks, Govini, Instant Connect Enterprise™ (ICE), Research Innovations, Inc. (RII), and Microsoft, integrating their capabilities into a single ecosystem.

For decades, artillery fire missions required soldiers to manually compute firing data with charts and protractors—a slow, error prone process that tied up fire direction centers. The process was digitized in the 1990s with the development of the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS). But while it was progress, AFATDS was slow to set up and unable to interface easily with other systems.

At Ivy Sting 1, the Army’s new Artillery Execution Suite (AXS) replaced that model. Integrated into NGC2, AXS delivered fire control at speed. The gains were measurable. With AFATDS, gun crews often spent time troubleshooting digital connections before they could fire. Using AXS on Lattice Mesh, crews were digitally ready in under 30 seconds.

Running on Voyager rugged edge computing kits, Lattice Mesh, Anduril’s software backbone, kept the workflow seamlessly connected and resilient in concert with Palantir’s software platform. Ghost, Anduril’s modular UAS platform, also ran on the mesh, providing immediate battle damage assessment through full-motion video, and Army Forward Observers fed inputs directly into Lattice via Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) integrations. Palantir’s TWB managed, tracked, and allocated resources for each target taking geolocation data and translating it to actionable targets to process through the kill chain.

This was no tabletop exercise. Soldiers fired 26 live missions with M777 howitzers on Fort Carson’s live-fire ranges, running AXS side-by-side with legacy crews. The contrast was visible: one team struggling with delays, the other firing digitally in seconds. Ivy Sting 1 proved that NGC2 works under operational conditions and set the stage for future events that will scale across more nodes and integrate partner applications.

To make it all happen, Anduril’s NGC2 engineering team embedded directly with the AXS developers using the NGC2 Software Development Kit (SDK). The SDK gives third-party developers the tools and open interfaces needed to rapidly build and integrate new applications and data services for NGC2, ensuring flexibility and avoiding vendor lock-in. That integration allowed the Army to move faster than planned—pulling a milestone originally set for January 2026 into Ivy Sting 1. The first M777 round was fired just 12 hours after the beta software was installed.

The workflow demonstrated has now been adopted as the division’s standard operating procedure for artillery fire control. Every future 4ID training event will build on Ivy Sting 1 mission thread, reinforcing and refining the process.

Ivy Sting 1 is only the beginning. Anduril and its partners will expand the number of nodes integrated into Lattice Mesh and use the NGC2 SDK to pull new mission threads into the data fabric. What started with fires will extend to sustainment, aviation, logistics, counter-UAS, and medical evacuation within Army operations. During Ivy Sting 2, a new mission thread will demonstrate how Lattice Mesh connects data generated by AXS to Ark, Govini’s sustainment application, enabling warfighting functions to interoperate seamlessly across the division. By Ivy Mass in May 2026, the division will be operating those workflows on Lattice at scale, treating the event as a full dress rehearsal for Project Convergence Capstone 6 in July.

Ivy Sting 1 showed how fast the Army and industry can deliver when they work as one team. In just two months, Anduril and its partners delivered a live-fire NGC2 capability that connected headquarters, artillery crews, and autonomous systems on a single mesh network.

Posted in Army, C5ISR, Press Release | Comments Off on How Anduril and the Army Are Rewriting Fire Missions with NGC2

Next-Gen Navigation Systems Reach Army Units

Thursday, October 2nd, 2025

Fielding of the Mounted Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing System, MAPS, GEN II hardware is underway across the Army to provide increased operational effectiveness with advanced positioning, navigation and timing, PNT, systems.

MAPS GEN II is the next-generation PNT system used to provide highly accurate and resilient PNT data to Army vehicles, especially in GPS-degraded or denied environments.

Fielding of the MAPS GEN II systems supports Transformation in Contact 2.0, the Army’s current initiative to rapidly deliver new equipment to operational units.

GEN I vs. GEN II – What’s changed?

The goal when developing MAPS GEN II was GPS security, first and foremost. At the most basic level if Soldiers don’t know where they are or where they are going and have confidence in the information, that’s not a very effective Army. PNT’s number one priority is to enable Soldiers to shoot, move and communicate.

The old trope, never judge a book by its cover, is true for MAPS GEN II. While it may look similar to its predecessor, GEN II boasts several welcomed improvements.

With the advancements in electronic warfare threats, a hardened, more secure PNT system was necessary. MAPS GEN II has stronger and more secure encryption through M-Code, uses alternative sensors providing sensor fusion and advancements to the exterior antenna providing Soldiers with more advanced anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities, two of the main electronic warfare threats the Army faces.

“Jamming is disruptive, but spoofing can be far more damaging,” Jennifer Thermos, acting product manager, Mounted PNT said. “When you don’t have a GPS signal, you know something’s wrong but there are still ways to take action. With spoofing, you’re still getting GPS signal but if you don’t have a system like MAPS GEN II that can recognize a spoofing attempt and reject it, you could be following a false GPS signal which could lead you right to where the enemy wants you.”

“MAPS GEN II is able to detect and reject GPS interference and provide the Soldier with a notification that it is operating despite the electronic warfare environment,” Thermos said.

The system was designed with size, weight and power in mind, as are all Army systems, to address space limitations inside vehicles.

“MAPS GEN II can take the place of MAPS GEN I systems as well as multiple Defense Advanced GPS Receivers, providing Assured PNT to client systems with one platform,” Thermos explained.

C2 Enabler

Built using open architecture standards which allows modularity and scalability, MAPS GEN II easily integrates with various platforms currently in use as well as future systems still in development that fall under the Command and Control, C2, umbrella.

MAPS GEN II also fits in well with Next Generation Command and Control, NGC2, architecture, part of the “how” the Army accomplishes its TIC goals. The system is a critical enabler of C2 and Fires capabilities. Networks, radios and Fires systems rely on highly accurate timing and positioning data to function.

“If legacy systems don’t have accurate timing and positioning data, the effectiveness of the system overall is degraded,” Thermos explained. “We want to provide every Soldier the full capability, so we want to field as many MAPS GEN II systems as possible, and as fast as possible.”

Training

MAPS GEN II represents a significant leap forward in assured PNT capabilities, but realizing its full potential requires Soldiers to be proficient in its operation and maintenance. The new equipment training provided a foundational understanding of the system’s architecture, operational procedures, troubleshooting techniques and integration with existing platforms.

“This training isn’t simply about learning how to use the system; it is about building confidence and fostering a proactive approach to maintaining PNT superiority in contested environments,” Maj. Shay Wright, assistant product manager, Mounted PNT production and fielding lead said. “Without this dedicated training, the Brigade’s ability to effectively leverage MAPS GEN II’s capabilities would be severely hampered.”

Fresh off training, the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, attached to the 7th Infantry Division, put MAPS GEN II through its paces during a follow-on training event.

“GPS jamming was an issue we had to deal with in training,” Capt. Tianna Johnson, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team said. “We must be prepared to respond to GPS jamming. In one case, MAPS indicated a detected threat, which was exactly what MAPS GEN II was designed to do, and we were able to take the appropriate actions.”

The value of in-person, hands-on training is not an expense, but a critical investment in maintaining our warfighting edge.

Future Plans

With fielding and training to the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team complete, the MAPS Team at Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors is focused on fielding and training various units including other TIC units, continuing with Stryker BCTs.

New Equipment Fielding is critically important to maintaining Army readiness and achieving overmatch against potential adversaries. These trainings enhance combat capability, maintain readiness levels and align with Army priorities.

By Shawn Nesaw

Posted in Army, C5ISR, Guest Post | Comments Off on Next-Gen Navigation Systems Reach Army Units

AV Expands Tomahawk Line with Future-Ready Grip TA5 Tactical Controller

Thursday, September 18th, 2025

The Grip TA5 was selected as the Dismounted Common Controller (DCC) as part of the $5.1M U.S. Army RCCTO Human-Machine Integrated Formations (HMIF) rapid prototyping project.

ARLINGTON, Va., [September 12, 2025] — AeroVironment, Inc. (“AV”) (NASDAQ: AVAV), a global leader in all-domain defense technologies, today unveiled its Tomahawk Grip TA5. The Grip TA5 is an 8-inch tactical controller designed to deliver enhanced situational awareness, precision strike capabilities, and seamless scalability across mission sets for today’s modern warfighter.

Built to integrate with the military-grade Samsung Tab Active5 Tactical Edition, the Grip TA5 turns off-the-shelf tablets into mobile command centers. It’s modular architecture and multi-platform compatibility offers operators command and control of multiple robotic assets in real-time – enhancing mission adaptability and response speed. The system enables intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, target acquisition and tracking, situational command and control (C2), and fire control functions–enabling direct operation of lethal payloads, loitering munitions, and direct-fire weapons. At just 2.5 pounds, the compact, rugged controller meets MIL-STD-810 and adds enhanced software security, advanced networking, and hot-swapping flexibility—positioning AV as the permanent control layer regardless of the underlying device model.

“Our ability to deliver effective, next-generation solutions at mission scale and speed positions AV as a top developer and manufacturer in the defense industry,” said Trace Stevenson, President of Autonomous Systems for AV. “The Grip TA5 is more than a controller. It’s a force multiplier that brings speed, interoperability, and future-ready capabilities to the modern warfighter.”

In May, AV announced that its Tomahawk Ground Control Station (GCS) product line was awarded a $5.1 million contract by the U.S. Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) in support of the Human-Machine Integrated Formations (HMIF) rapid prototyping project. The Grip TA5 was officially selected as the Dismounted Common Controller (DCC) to advance human-machine teaming and strengthen battlefield command and control.

AV previously developed and delivered multiple iterations of prototypes based on the previous Samsung Tab Active3 as part of the United States Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030. The Grip TA5 leverages lessons learned from this work, adding the interoperability and multi-mission capabilities needed to meet requirements for the U.S. Army’s Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordinance (LASSO), Long Range Reconnaissance (LRR), and Launched Effects (LE) programs while still maintaining operability with USMC programs, like Marine Air-Ground Tablet (MAGTAB).

The Grip TA5 expands AV’s Tomahawk Ground Control Station product line, which also includes the Grip S20 designed around the Samsung Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition smart phone. Responding to operator feedback for larger screen sizes, the Grip TA5 offers a ruggedized and streamlined, cost-effective solution with an expandable port for dual 8-inch displays to boost visibility and efficiency. The controller will begin shipping as a standard catalog configuration or as an alternative option with AV platforms starting in late 2025.

“Developed for warfighters from warfighter feedback, the Grip TA5 highlights our focus on rapidly turning feedback into real, fielded innovation,” said John Bolen, AV’s Tomahawk GCS Product Line Manager. “By expanding screen size, enhancing networking, and offering scalability across clients, vehicles, and operations, we are giving soldiers a tactical edge on the battlefield.”

Posted in C5ISR, Drone, Press Release, Robotics | Comments Off on AV Expands Tomahawk Line with Future-Ready Grip TA5 Tactical Controller

Anduril’s Menace-I Brings Petabyte-Scale Processing to the Warfighter at the Tactical Edge

Monday, September 15th, 2025

On August 11, 2025, U.S. Marines sling loaded Anduril’s Menace-I via a CH-53K King Stallion helicopter, demonstrating new levels of mobility for expanded expeditionary mission planning and coordination. From a distance, it looked like any other grey shipping container. In reality, it was a deployable node for planning, coordination, and data processing—equipped with the power, climate control, compute, connectivity, and security of a fixed facility.

Menace-I is a turnkey command, control, compute, communications, cyber, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C5ISR) solution accredited for use as both a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) and a Special Access Program Facility (SAPF). In less than ten minutes after setup, Menace-I is fully operational and supporting missions in forward, contested environments.

The challenge is delivering large quantities of processing power—secure, accredited, and reliable—to the tactical edge. Today, anything involving classified data in a SCIF or SAPF can only be done in fixed facilities or in Temporary Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (T-SCIFs) that require a day or more to set up. That timeline doesn’t work for expeditionary forces that maneuver in hours, not days.

Traditional approaches rely on reach-back to distant data centers over SATCOM links that may be degraded or denied in conflict. At the tactical edge, connectivity cannot be assumed, yet forces still require AI, analytics, mission planning, briefing, and debriefing in seconds. Menace-I solves this by bringing the compute with you.

Menace-I delivers a powerful, secure, accredited SCIF/SAPF set of edge nodes wherever forces are operating—enabling classified mission planning, force generation, and battle management at the point of need. What once took a day or more to set up can now be established in under ten minutes. Every Menace-I runs on Lattice, Anduril’s AI-powered software, is powered by Voyager’s rugged edge computing platform, and is connected through Lattice Mesh, our secure networking fabric.

Proven Real-World Mobility Options

The recent sling load operation validated Menace-I as the only fully integrated mission planning solution for fifth-generation aircraft that is transportable by all organic Marine Corps assets: truck, KC-130J Super Hercules, and rotary wing aircraft.

This mobility matters. Expeditionary forces can now reposition a fully accredited planning node as quickly as they maneuver, ensuring secure command centers move in lockstep with the fight. What once required hours of setup or reach-back can now move forward with the unit, giving commanders immediate access to secure facilities wherever the mission takes them.

Petabyte-Scale AI at the Edge

Artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and cross-domain data processing demand massive compute capacity—rarely available at the tactical edge. To meet this need, in July, Anduril delivered the first Menace-I in a petabyte-scale configuration, powered by Voyager.

The configuration quadruples compute capacity with tens of thousands of cores, brings petabyte-scale storage, and delivers high performance computing (HPC) and graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration to the edge. It provides the same expeditionary capabilities of Menace-I, scaled to handle AI workloads, data fusion, mission planning, briefing, and debriefing—all without relying on fragile reach-back to distant data centers.

In a D-Day environment where connectivity is uncertain, Menace-I brings the data center with you.

At the heart of Menace-I is Voyager, Anduril’s family of rugged edge communications and computing solutions. Voyager is engineered to withstand extreme environments, electronic attack, and jamming. Its modular design makes it easily adaptable to different mission needs.

Voyager is deployed in austere environments worldwide, trusted by thousands of customers, and is the preferred solution for rugged computing for militaries and special operations forces.

Cross-Domain Operations with Everfox

Conflicts are contested across land, air, sea, space, and cyber. Winning requires seamless data movement across classification levels.

Voyager is now the preferred edge server hardware platform for Everfox’s cross-domain solutions, enabling enterprise-grade data transfer between classification levels in expeditionary environments. This partnership ensures that forces operating at the tactical edge can move intelligence across domains and networks without sacrificing security or speed. Imagery, targeting data, and mission plans can flow seamlessly from unclassified to classified environments—and back—enabling faster, more informed decisions in contested battlespaces.

Everfox, powered by Voyager, will be deployed across Anduril’s Menace family of systems, enabling customers to conduct cross-domain operations at the edge.

In the Field Today

Menace-I is deployed with customers and partners today, enabling forward-deployed forces to plan, process, and fight with the speed, security, and mobility needed to stay connected wherever the fight takes them.

Posted in AI / ML, C5ISR, Press Release, USMC | Comments Off on Anduril’s Menace-I Brings Petabyte-Scale Processing to the Warfighter at the Tactical Edge

Gentex Partners with Anduril to Enhance U.S. Army Soldier Borne Mission Command with Integrated Helmet and Comms Systems

Wednesday, September 10th, 2025

CARBONDALE, PA, September 9, 2025 – Gentex Corporation is proud to announce its role as a key partner in the U.S. Army’s Soldier Borne Mission Command (SBMC) program, awarded to Anduril Industries. Under this contract, Gentex will provide advanced helmet and communications integration to support the Army’s next-generation Heads Up Displays (HUDs), ensuring seamless soldier adoption and enhanced survivability in the most demanding environments.

“This program represents the next step in connecting soldiers with the tools they need to outpace evolving threats. Gentex is proud to bring our proven platforms and capabilities to SBMC, ensuring that cutting-edge HUD technology integrates seamlessly into protective systems already trusted on the battlefield,” said L.P. Frieder III, President & CEO, Gentex Corporation.

As part of the SBMC ecosystem, Gentex will leverage its industry-leading Ops-Core® helmet systems and AMP® communication headsets to provide the scalable, modular foundation required for optimal HUD integration. Building on extensive feedback from the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, the SBMC effort represents the next step in equipping soldiers with mission-ready hardware that combines protection, comfort, and connectivity in one platform.

Gentex’s role in SBMC ensures HUD technology integrates seamlessly with combat-proven helmets and communications systems already trusted by the U.S. Army and allied forces worldwide, while also contributing expertise to the development of future soldier-vision technologies. The result is a scalable, mission-ready system that reduces complexity, accelerates decision-making, and enhances survivability while delivering both immediate impact and a foundation for the next generation of soldier-vision capabilities.

Posted in Advertiser, C5ISR, Contracts, Helmets, Press Release | 3 Comments »

Anduril Awarded Contract to Redefine the Future of Mixed Reality

Tuesday, September 9th, 2025

“Military operations are inherently human endeavors, characterized by violence and continuous adaptation by all participants. Successful execution requires Army forces to make and implement effective decisions faster than enemy forces.”

-Army Doctrinal Publication 6-0, Mission Command

Anduril Industries announced today that it has been awarded a $159 million contract by the U.S. Army for an initial prototyping period to develop a night vision and mixed reality system as part of the Soldier Borne Mission Command (formerly IVAS Next) program. This award represents the largest effort of its kind to equip every soldier with superhuman perception and decision-making capabilities—fusing the best of night vision, augmented reality, and AI into a single system.

Today’s warfighters benefit from decades of steady improvements in night vision technology, but even the best NVGs remain fundamentally limited: they provide sight, not perception. They don’t fuse multiple spectral bands, integrate battlefield data, or enable soldiers to command robotic teammates directly from their display. At the same time, command systems remain largely designed for static command posts, not for soldiers in contested, communication-degraded environments.

In a forward-deployed environment, a squad leader must stitch together maps, radios, and ad hoc apps just to know where their team is, what the threat looks like, and how higher headquarters wants them to move. Intelligence gets trapped in silos, updates arrive too late, and every new piece of gear adds complexity instead of clarity. The result: warfighters lose precious seconds just trying to get a common picture of the fight. In a world where success depends on making and implementing decisions faster than the enemy, that’s an unacceptable disadvantage.

The Solution

Anduril’s solution reimagines the battlefield interface giving soldiers superhero-like abilities. In collaboration with leading technology partners—including Meta; OSI; Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.; and Gentex Corporation—Anduril is developing a helmet-mounted mixed reality system that unites advanced night vision with augmented reality overlays. This creates a single perceptual layer that fuses day, night, and thermal imagery with real-time battlefield intelligence. Soldiers will see farther, across more spectral bands, through an intuitive, real-time display. Instead of toggling between devices, warfighters will perceive a unified picture of their environment—accelerating understanding and enabling faster, better decisions.

The competitively awarded SBMC contract provides Anduril with the opportunity to deliver a generational leap in both capability and hardware ergonomics. Anduril and its partners are developing a modular component framework, enabling soldiers to select the most effective loadout for their specific mission needs.

Soldier Borne Mission Command Architecture

Originally launched as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), Soldier Borne Mission Command-Architecture (SBMC-A) is the software backbone for the Army’s new mission systems. While the broader SBMC program delivers new helmet-mounted displays and edge compute hardware, SBMC-A provides the open software platform that integrates them into a fielded, soldier-ready capability, continuously iterated with Army combat units. Built on Anduril’s Lattice platform, SBMC-A is led by Anduril in partnership with Palantir Technologies, L3Harris Technologies; Persistent Systems, LLC; Sierra Nevada Company; DTC; Maxar Intelligence; Kägwerks; and others, all working together to advance integrated capabilities across the Soldier Borne Mission Command ecosystem.

Working with its partners and leveraging over 260,000 hours of soldier input from the IVAS program, Anduril has integrated IVAS 1.2 headsets as surrogates with Lattice, completing multiple field tests with the Army to advance SBMC-A as the foundation for future helmet-mounted mixed reality systems. SBMC-A has undergone four soldier exercises and been tested in combat training scenarios using a mesh of heads-up displays, and body- and vehicle-borne edge compute devices. Through Anduril’s SBMC-A, drones were directly tasked from over three kilometers away via a line-of-sight radio connection to a Lattice-integrated IVAS 1.2 headset, allowing individual soldiers to command and control drones from their HUD without a dedicated drone pilot.

Fourteen industry partners are actively engaged in the SBMC-A program, with third-party developers already onboarded to the Lattice Partner Ecosystem via the Lattice Software Development Kit (SDK) to expand capabilities inside the Lattice Mesh. Most notably, Anduril has reduced over-the-air software update timelines by 99 percent—cutting the process from two days to just 15 minutes—enabled by Lattice’s optimized test and fleet management tools. With daily updates pushing to the field, Anduril is accelerating delivery timelines, reducing costs, and continuously improving SBMC-A through real-world soldier feedback and operational testing.

Together, SBMC and SMBC-A are about human perceptual augmentation: giving soldiers the ability to see beyond the limits of human senses and act with speed and clarity across every domain of the fight. SBMC will allow every soldier to see farther, know more, and act faster than ever before, redefining what it means to fight and win in the 21st century.

Posted in Army, C5ISR, Contracts, Press Release | Comments Off on Anduril Awarded Contract to Redefine the Future of Mixed Reality

Army Announces Additional Competitive Award for Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) Prototyping Efforts

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — The U.S. Army has awarded a new Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement to Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems and their team of non-traditional innovators and commercial technology providers. This agreement aims to advance the Army’s Next Generation Command and Control division-level prototyping and experimentation by delivering an integrated data layer capability to the 25th Infantry Division.

Next Generation Command and Control, or NGC2, is the Army’s new, innovative approach to equipping commanders with the data they need to make better, faster decisions than the enemy amid rapid technological change.

The OTA was awarded through the NGC2 competitive Commercial Solutions Offering (CSO) on behalf of Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications, and Network (PEO C3N) for $26 million with a not to exceed period of performance of 16 months.

The new OTA builds on the Army’s recently extended NGC2 OTA agreement to Team Anduril, which also includes several teamed industry partners. Vendor teams participating in NGC2 are flexible, allowing the Army to collaborate with the team leads to adjust capabilities and participants based on prototyping outcomes. Additionally, the Army is accepting proposals on the CSO for potential future team lead or component integration into the NGC2 technology stack.

“This isn’t the end of competition, this is the beginning. Through these two industry team lead agreements, we’ll evaluate different models for shared responsibility and aligned incentives during the NGC2 prototyping phase. We don’t want to have great capabilities simply at the start — we want a durable partnership model that keeps pace with an ever-evolving American tech sector and creates continual opportunity to find and insert the best technology solutions,” said Joseph Welch, deputy to the commanding general, Army Futures Command. “By encouraging companies to self-organize and team with each other and enabling them to integrate and solve these problems directly with the operational force, we will be able to rapidly and continuously improve the command and control capabilities we deliver to Soldiers.”

In July, the Army continued an OTA agreement to Team Anduril to maintain NGC2 momentum from Project Convergence experimentation. The agreement will deliver a NGC2 prototype architecture to the 4th Infantry Division, which is conducting prototyping across applications, data, infrastructure, and transport within a full “technology stack.” The Team Lockheed Martin OTA will focus on the integrated data layer, allowing the Army to assess NGC2 software options. These options will be supported by the C2 Fix transport and infrastructure capabilities already fielded to the 25th Infantry Division. The OTA also supports the Army’s goal of increasing competition and creating multiple opportunities for vendors to contribute technology to the NGC2 ecosystem.

“Next Generation Command and Control is about accelerating transformation and optimizing the innovation of both industry and our warfighters to deliver critical Warfighting capabilities at speed,” said Jesse Tolleson, acting assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. “This is not business as usual and reflects exactly what we are trying to achieve through transformation across the Army and the acquisition community.”

Lessons learned by the 4th Infantry Division and 25th Infantry Division will provide insights into how heavy and light units will apply NGC2 differently. These efforts will also examine how NGC2 elements function across the technology stack, with a focus on the data layer’s ability to ingest, transport, and organize data from multiple warfighting systems. Additionally, they will inform future fielding considerations for the broader Army.

“The pace at which we are moving with NGC2, both in terms of contracting and getting the equipment into the hands of Soldiers, is exceptional and laser focused on making our formations faster and more lethal,” said Brig. Gen. Shane Taylor, PEO C3N. “The NGC2 CSO is one way we are transforming our acquisition approaches to drive continuous competition and equip Soldiers with technologies that will win in the future fight.”

Previously fielded with the Army’s C2 Fix capabilities — which provided a “fight tonight” division communications architecture with a mix of military and commercial off-the-shelf capabilities as a down payment on NGC2 transformation — the 25th Infantry Division is postured to demonstrate how NGC2 software capabilities operate with C2 Fix hardware.

“At the 25th Infantry Division, we are humbled to play a role in bringing Next Generation Command and Control into the hands of Soldiers,” said Lt. Col. Eugene Miranda, spokesperson for 25th Infantry Division. “This effort is about giving our leaders and formations the ability to sense, decide, and act faster together than any adversary. By working alongside our industry partners and allies, we are learning in real time how human skill, disciplined processes, and emerging technologies can come together to strengthen deterrence and win in the Indo-Pacific. We are proud to contribute to this Army-wide transformation, knowing that every lesson we learn here helps drive the change our Army needs at the speed of need.”

Through NGC2, the Army is transforming not only technology, but also processes in requirements, resourcing, acquisition and contracting. The NGC2 competitive CSO enables continuous open solicitation with specific “decision windows,” allowing vendors to support rapid integration of new capabilities. During the most recent CSO opportunity for NGC2 prototyping with 25th Infantry Division, more than 80 vendors submitted team lead or component provider proposals.

“Contracting for NGC2 is not just about buying a product; it’s about investing in strategic partnerships with vendors,” said Danielle Moyer, executive director, Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground. “By continuing to embrace open dialogue and collaboration with industry and offering an environment that continues to leverage competition across all aspects of the NGC2 ecosystem, we can better equip our Soldiers with the most agile and innovative technology available.”

By PEO C3N Public Communications Directorate

Posted in Army, C5ISR, Contracts, Guest Post | Comments Off on Army Announces Additional Competitive Award for Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) Prototyping Efforts