U.S. Army's NGC2 Initiative Targets Data Sharing Across Distributed Forces

The U.S. Army’s Next Generation Command and Control initiative aims to link data collection, management, analysis and decision-making across Army forces and with other military services, partners and allies. Center for a New American Security fellow Josh Wallin said electronic-warfare threats and long distances shape the challenge, particularly in the Indo-Pacific.

Key details

• Wallin identified jamming, interference and emissions tracking as electronic-warfare challenges.
• He said distributed forces will need to exchange data to stay synchronized, while commercial cellular infrastructure may be less available in the Pacific.
• The initiative’s design separates hardware, communications links, computing, data management and applications, allowing individual components to change without replacing higher-level systems.
• Potential uses include coordinating targeting and layered air-defense systems, as well as analyzing logistics information alongside operational, threat and intelligence data.

Josh Wallin cited the prospect of connecting forces thousands of miles apart, particularly in the Indo-Pacific.

Why it matters

A shared data infrastructure could connect information from functions that have traditionally operated separately. Wallin said AI and other analysis methods could help automate some tasks, while a modular design could let the Army update individual components without replacing the broader system.