The U.S. Army is once again reaching out to industry to advance its Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) efforts.
In a request for information (RFI) posted on SAM.gov on Monday, the Army’s program executive office for command, control, communications-tactical (PEO C3T) said it is seeking input from industry on “experimentation, pilots and, prototyping” to establish the NGC2 system.
NGC2 is the Army’s effort to create an integrated command and control framework that emphasizes data centricity at every level. According to the RFI, the NGC2 system is designed to unify intelligence, command and control, and fire support – ensuring commanders have quicker access to critical information.
According to Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis – who was appointed this summer to serve as the lead of the Army Futures Command’s Network Cross-Functional Team – the goal is to complete a draft of the guidance ahead of the Army’s Project Convergence Capstone 5 (PC-C5) in March 2025.
“The goal is to … be able on the back end of PC-C5 update [the requirements documents] relatively quickly and then get it out on the street,” Ellis said during AFCEA International’s TechNet Augusta 2024 conference. “The goal that we’re going for is to not wait for the big experiment to be done and then build the requirements documents – do that in parallel,” the general said.
According to the RFI, all services and products chosen to be part of NGC2 will be “heavily dependent upon advanced software analytics and artificial intelligence/machine learning capabilities to support feedback loops for performance monitoring and improvement.”
Specifically, the Army wants insight into how to “design and manage a common services architecture for warfighting applications” while allowing for a “plug-and-plan architecture.” It also asks respondents how industry would “leverage a common data layer to scale capabilities” and meet warfighting needs.
The RFI also asks what role – if any – the Army’s Unified Data Reference Architecture could play in creating and managing NGC2, as well as any potential perceived barriers or roadblocks for the Army ensuring open competition in the acquisition process for NGC2.
The RFI is currently open for comment and will close on Oct. 4 at 5 p.m. ET.
