NGC2 prototype concepts take shape

US soldiers with the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, conduct a patrol near Bisbee, Arizona, in June 2025. (US Army)

Company officials at tactical communications manufacturer L3Harris are drafting up a software-centric strategy, focusing on upgrades to their current family of tactical radios, as a way to meet the US Army's requirements for its Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) programme.

The focus on leveraging current capabilities already in the ground service arsenal, especially the service's software-defined radio (SDR) platforms, represents the main thrust of the company's multipronged approach to NGC2 capability development.

“We understand the need to modernise the [army] network and to have these disparate networks that have developed over time … be able to communicate with one another,” according to Samir Mehta, president of Communications Systems at L3Harris, addressing the main challenge NGC2 programme officials are trying to solve.

The crux of the NGC2 strategy is to establish a common data layer accessible across echelons that would break down data access stovepipes based on the mission. Rather than delineate combat data flows by mission – command-and-control (C2), intelligence, and fires – battlefield information would be funnelled into a common data layer, accessed through a series of applications developed through an applications layer.

The service's Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, and Network (PEO C3N) issued the initial request for information (RFI) for technologies to support the NGC2 concept in January 2025.

As designed, the NGC2 prototype initiative focused on common data layer development, as well as the stand-up of a “secure digital environment required to develop, test, and deploy required C2 capabilities” tied to the programme, service officials wrote in the RFI at the time.