US Army awards Anduril contract worth up to $1.8 billion for NGC2 — Defense News

On September 30, the US Army awarded Anduril Industries a five-year contract with a potential value of up to $1.8 billion to move the new Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) command-and-control system from experimentation to deployment. As Defense News reports, initial funding amounts to $162.8 million for further work on the common NGC2 software foundation. The agreement includes options that could increase its value to $1.8 billion.

Expansion to I Corps

The Army is beginning to implement the software in I Corps, which commands US service members in the Indo-Pacific region. The system is intended to enable technologies, weapons, sensors, devices and applications of all units to operate on a single network and accelerate battlefield decision-making.

Expanding NGC2 to I Corps will also make it possible to test how systems can connect to a single network across thousands of kilometers and under intermittent or degraded communications conditions. The US Army and Anduril plan to assess the transfer of information between systems in different environments.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Software testing

Anduril previously developed an NGC2 prototype for the 4th Infantry Division, using its proprietary AI-based Lattice operating system. Palantir, Raft and Striveworks also worked on the common software foundation.

In May, Anduril deployed NGC2 at Fort Carson and Piñon Canyon. The tests involved more than 160 tactical edge computers, over 2,500 devices and 40 applications; the system was tested under simulated cyberattacks and electromagnetic attacks. Following joint exercises at Fort Irwin two months later, the Army said the command-and-control system was ready to scale.

NGC2 is intended to replace the first-generation command-and-control system that the Army uses to manage fires, logistics and airspace on the battlefield.