Spc. Hayzin Zappanti, an Armor Crewmember assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division provides security in an attack during Ivy Mass on Fort Carson, Colorado, May 5, 2026. Ivy Mass, the division's culminating exercise of the first five exercises in the series, validated large-scale combat operations while integrating Next Generation Command and Control capabilities to enhance situational awareness, data sharing, and decision-making across the formation. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Thomas Nguyen)

Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, 4th ID Commander (seated rear), prepares to depart for one of the areas of operations on May 6, 2026, during Ivy Mass, the culminating risk reduction event to validate Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) systems across live and constructive environments at the Division level. Ellis’ Stryker served as the main “hub” as part of NGC2’s hub and spoke capabilities, with hubs hosting compute resources to provide local applications in Denied, Disrupted/Degraded, Intermittent, and Limited (DDIL) environments. The commanders’ hub connects to the various spokes; spokes are variants of capabilities integrated into multiple combat vehicles that can access applications on hubs for real-time on the move command and control.

Soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division demonstrated Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) on-the-move command post capabilities on May 5, 2026, at Fort Carson, Colorado. These modern prototype capabilities, integrated as systems of systems into multiple vehicle variants including Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, Abrams Tanks, and Strykers, are connecting tactical communications, data systems, and applications into a cohesive ecosystem to ensure the Army can outpace threats and remain operationally flexible in contested environments.

U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter from 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, lay in wait before on Butts Army Airfield during Ivy Mass, May 8, 2026, on Fort Carson, Colorado. The exercise helped demonstrate how units assigned to the Ivy Division are able to utilize Next-Generation Command and Control systems like the Artillery Execution Suite to enhance communication, synchronization, and decision-making for large-scale combat operations. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Dane Howard)

Soldiers assigned to 2nd Battalion, 12thh Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Infantry Division Artillery, 4th Infantry Division, fire an M777A2 howitzer during a deployment readiness exercise, May 11, 2026, at Fort Carson, Colorado. Live-fire exercises demonstrate the unit’s ability to deliver lethal effects and support maneuver forces in complex operational environments. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Dane Howard)

FORT CARSON, Colo. (June 3, 2026) – In less than one year the Army advanced its novel approach to modernizing command and control capabilities from proof of concept to a division equipped with leading-edge commercial prototype technologies.

Sparked by predictions of future fights unfolding at unprecedented speed, the Army introduced the Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) effort, which leans in on data and AI technologies to enhance commanders’ abilities to make decisions and execute command and control (C2) faster than any peer enemy.

Following a series of five NGC2 Soldier-driven training events called Ivy Stings, executed by the 4th Infantry Division (4ID), last month’s Ivy Mass served as the culminating risk reduction exercise in preparation for Project Convergence-Capstone 6 (PC-C6) this summer at the National Training Center (NTC), Fort Irwin, California.

“Ivy Mass is a full division exercise from Fort Carson to Piñon Canyon with an Armored Brigade Combat Team and Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) in the fight with another SBCT in support,” said Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, commanding general, 4ID and Fort Carson. “The NGC2 capability is wrapped into the event, allowing the division to employ the new technology in an operational context.”

NGC2 is a fundamental redesign of the way the Army conducts C2, featuring a holistic “full stack” capability ecosystem comprised of C2 applications, data/AI, and the underlying infrastructure and transport solutions.

The NGC2 ecosystem will leverage commercial technologies to deliver information across all warfighting functions to provide the right data that enables commanders to make decisions at speed in any environment, including denied, degraded, intermittent, and low bandwidth (DDIL) conditions.

The 4ID and the 25th Infantry Division (25ID) are the two current divisions selected by the Army to prototype NGC2 capabilities. Dozens of industry partners and multiple Army program offices joined forces with the divisions to help expedite C2 transformation, iteratively refining NGC2 prototypes through Soldier-driven experimentation at operational training events.

“Having the ability to provide input directly to the industry teams and then collaborate with them side-by-side to quickly come up with solutions has significantly enhanced our capabilities and reduced the time needed for updates and changes to be captured and fixed,” said Maj. Emerson Davis, 4ID assistant chief of operations, G3.

IVY MASS OVERVIEW

Building on Ivy Sting 5 and outcomes from the 25ID’s Lightning Surge exercise series, 4ID’s Ivy Mass stressed every element of NGC2, employing the full stack across two brigades and support elements, backed by the largest expansion in scale of both NGC2 systems and participating 4ID elements thus far in the formation’s Ivy Sting series.

With movement across the expanse of Fort Carson and Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, the division executed a joint forcible entry, forward passage of entry, and force-on-force operations against a live opposition force, culminating in a simulated division defense.

To fight and push the prototype NGC2 ecosystem and its operators to capacity, the Army implemented an adversarial Red Team, hitting units with cyber and electronic warfare (EW) attacks, so it can identify and correct potential vulnerabilities.

“We know our forces will need to fight through a wide range of threats across multiple domains, so we need to prepare for that fight with Next Generation C2,” said Brig. Gen. Michael Kaloostian, director C2 Future Capability Directorate (FCD), and Red Cell Director for Ivy Mass. “The Army has incorporated EW and cyber challenges during previous Ivy Stings, but Ivy Mass is a significant step forward in scale, scope, complexity, and representation of potential real word threats, so we can continue to learn and improve both tactics and capabilities.”

Other goals for Ivy Mass included reducing the average sensor-to-decision cycle time; increasing warfighter decision speed and reducing cognitive load; and improving the availability of mission-critical systems in contested environments.

Within these focus areas, the teams continued to enhance the NGC2 data layer on end user devices (EUDs) at the tactical edge. Commanders also expanded the employment of AI-enabled tools to accelerate human decision making in areas such as aided target recognition, predictive sustainment, and real-time mission planning.

“Every one of our forward observers has been issued an EUD with an AI-aided mesh networking capability that connects to the main mission system at the division,” said Sgt. First Class Nicholas Kindel, division fire support noncommissioned officer in charge

The system’s algorithms calculate the specific type of data ingested from the EUD to publish to the Division Artillery common operational picture and artillery execution software.

“Using all relevant targeting information, the FSO [Fire Support Officer] will send the mission to the guns for firing. These systems allow the FSO to watch fires missions from beginning to end, and have updates in real time,” Kindel said.

ACQUISITION APPROACH

The Army’s unconventional acquisition approach for NGC2 is aligned with the need to act with speed and acceptable risk to keep pace with emerging technologies and evolving threats.

“The most critical tenets of our approach from an acquisition standpoint are our commercial first strategy and industry self-teaming,” said Brig. Gen. Shane Taylor, capability program executive, Command and Control Information Network (CPE C2IN).

The opportunity to prototype capabilities with two divisions, which have vastly different mission sets, is another aspect of the new approach that is providing the Army with the critical data needed to tailor each NGC2 kit to the fight.

“One size does not fit all,” Taylor said. “Within the NGC2 stack, we see common characteristics that will carry from division to division, such as how we manage and store data. However, we are learning how to give commanders the ability to tailor the kit based off their unit’s individual needs.”

CONCLUSION

The Army’s command and control mechanisms will be essential to the U.S. military’s strategic advantage. Data from Ivy Mass and PC-C6 will provide decision makers with valuable information on 4ID’s NGC2 prototype effort to inform best-of-breed NGC2 capabilities able to scale to additional formations across the Army.

“If we can get a less than perfect solution into the hands of Soldiers, get real-time feedback, find what works, fix what doesn’t fast, and then get it to where it's effective -- and I'm seeing that play out now -- it's going to help us continue to keep pace with some of these battlefields that we may not be anticipating,” said Lt. Col. Timothy Light, commander of the 4th Attack Battalion, 4th Aviation Regiment, part of the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4ID, which leveraged NGC2 capability integrated on Apache aircraft for the first time. “And certainly, once we get to a near peer threat where they are leveraging new technology, we can adjust as fast.”

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 CPE C2IN is rapidly delivering dominant C2 and network solutions through a dedicated partnership with warfighters and industry. We achieve this by harnessing the speed of commercial innovation and pioneering new capabilities, providing a persistent and decisive information advantage. CPE C2IN equips commanders to decide and act faster than any adversary, ensuring victory in a complex, ever-evolving contested environment.