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Within the Army Transformation Initiative, the Army’s Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) effort represents a fundamental change in delivering data-driven C2 to our formations. From requirements to resourcing, acquisition and contracting, every gear in the system is being rebuilt to drive smarter, faster, and more effective outcomes. The scope and pace of this change is creating both opportunities and questions as industry adapts with us.
What are we doing with NGC2?We’re delivering seamlessly integrated C2 capability from corps down to squad. The key is a data integration layer that enables a rapid buildout of applications across warfighting functions such as fires, intelligence, logistics, and protection, and provides a common operating picture across all. The integrated data layer is the foundation for multifunctional artificial intelligence-enabled models that will rapidly augment decision making and speed.
Commercial hardware and software is critical to achievin..

Soldiers with the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division are in the midst of a training exercise with Philippine allies that has them pushing farther and striking deeper with the help of new drones.
The 2nd Mobile Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, is forward deployed in the Philippines, training with the 7th Infantry Division of the Philippine Armed Forces as part of a Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, or JPMRC, exercise.
Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, 25th Infantry Division commanding general, told Army Times on Monday that the most challenging part of the exercise so far has been the environmental factors. High temperatures and monsoon conditions have slammed troops as they’ve operated across islands and jungles in the Luzon area of the Philippines.
The exercise marks the brigade’s second evolution of the Army’s Transformation in Contact, or TIC, initiative following its first evolution in 2024. As part of the initiative, which seeks to modernize and evolve f..

Early this year, the Pentagon issued a memo halting development of a new radar meant to protect Guam from high-end air and missile threats, according to a May 22 Government Accountability Office report on the effort to protect the strategic island in the Pacific.
“On January 7, 2025, the Deputy Secretary of Defense [Kathleen Hicks] directed the [Missile Defense Agency] to cease development of one of the elements, the AN/TPY-6 radar, but to retain the currently fielded panel as an experimental asset with potential to develop for operational use within the [Guam Defense System] in the future,” the report states.
While Hicks’ decision came at the end of her tenure under the Biden administration, GAO notes the changes are not binding on the new administration.
The Pentagon’s plan to develop an elaborate air-and-missile defense architecture is beginning to take shape and will be pieced together over the coming years in order to protect Guam from increasingly complex threat..

Marine Corps and Army missile systems are set to deploy to a key chokepoint in the Philippine Island chains for anti-ship drills during the military exercise known as KAMANDAG.
The unmanned, anti-ship Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, and the Army’s High Mobility Rocket Artillery System will feature prominently in the exercise with their emplacement between Luzon and Taiwan, U.S. Naval Institute reported.
The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment’s NMESIS is heading to Batanes, the northernmost portion of Philippine territory. The platform first reached the island of Basco and Batan for Balikatan 2025, a maritime security exercise.
This unit will be the next to field the ship-killing missile system
That was the first time the Marines deployed the anti-ship missile to the Luzon Strait.
“The insertion of the NMESIS on Batan during Exercise Balikatan 25’s MKTSO was an achievement of a major milestone not just for 3rd MLR, but for the entire U.S…

CULPEPER, Va. — L3Harris has begun clearing forest and carving out roads deep in the Virginia countryside, breaking ground on a major expansion at its Orange County facility to produce small and medium solid rocket motors – key components for the Javelin antitank weapon.
As part of the Defense Production Act used to boost the replenishment of weapons sent to Ukraine,L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne is building state-of-the art facilities for solid rocket motor production, such as casting and assembly, and for mixing and grinding operations while upgrading its testing plant.
The U.S. has sent Ukraine over 10,000 shoulder-fired Javelin systems since Russia invaded in February 2022 and is now working to replenish its depleted stock. Javelin is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Aerojet Rocketdyne supplies the rocket motors for the weapon.
Lockheed Martin aims to boost annual production from 2,400 Javelin missiles to nearly 4,000 by 2026, and Aerojet will need to cont..

The Army’s newest air defense platform recently conducted its first live fire in the Arctic alongside NATO allies while another air defense unit deployed the Avenger Air Defense System in Africa for the first time.
The Sgt. STOUT vehicle, formerly known as Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense, or M-SHORAD, consists of a Stryker vehicle with mounted Stinger missiles, onboard radar and a 30mm cannon.
Soldiers with the 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, joined NATO allies for Exercise Formidable Shield 2025 in the Arctic Circle near Andoya, Norway, according to an Army release.
Air defenders engaged target drones simulating low-altitude threats over several late-night live-fire events, both from the Sgt. STOUT and dismounted from the vehicle.
The skies are no longer safe, these soldiers are preparing to defend them
Formidable Shield included 16 warships, 27 aircraft and eight ground units from 11 NATO and partner nations between May 6-9. Primarily an integrated air and ..

Army aviation leaders were caught off guard by some of the sweeping changes to the service’s overall force structure and are now scrambling to align plans with the top brass’ shifting vision, which includes abrupt moves to cancel or scale back key programs like a modernized aircraft engine, spy planes and larger runway-dependent unmanned aircraft.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll issued memos within a day of each other earlier this month announcing major changes to command structure and formations and changes to acquisition and modernization efforts, including canceling programs while boosting others.
But, despite the surprise, leaders across the aviation branch said they are embracing change and working to shape the role aviation will play in future operations.
The announcement from the top “was a little abrupt,” Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, commander of the Army’s Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Novosel, Alabama, told reporters at the A..

The Marines are sticking with the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, even as costs may rise following the Army’s decision to halt the program.
The joint program office for the Army and Marine Corps first picked Oshkosh Defense to build the JLTV in August 2015, and in 2023 awarded a follow-on contract to AM General, according to a Congressional Research Services report released Monday.
“The Marine Corps is fully committed to the JLTV program. It is our workhorse on the ground tactical vehicle fleet,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said in a House Appropriations subcommittee on defense hearing May 14. “It’s a little bit too early to assess the impact of the Army stopping their version of the program, but per-unit costs are clearly going to go up … when the orders go down.”
The JLTV was originally intended to replace the Marine Corps’ and Army’s light tactical vehicle fleets, which consist mostly of Humvees. The initial low-rate p..

Raytheon has delivered the first missile defense radar to the Missile Defense Agency upgraded with the capability to track hypersonic weapons, the company announced Monday.
The MDA has long used AN/TPY-2 radars to track ballistic missiles, but this new version features a Gallium Nitride, or GaN, populated array, Raytheon said.
The new AN/TPY-2 X-band radar is the 13th system to be delivered to the agency but the first with the technology. It will be a part of the U.S. Army’s eighth Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery.
The radars can be used in a forward-based mode, providing cuing data to systems like the U.S. Navy’s Aegis ballistic missile defense system or the Army’s Patriot missile defense system. It serves as the primary radar for the Army’s THAAD system.
GaN is technology already integrated into the Army’s Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense System radar, which was approved for low-rate production last month and will serve as the new tracking sensor..

NASHVILLE, Tenn. − The Army plans to accelerate the delivery of its first production-representative Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft to soldiers in 2028 by moving into low-rate production while still testing prototypes, Col. Jeffrey Poquette, the service’s FLRAA program manager, told Defense News.
Army leadership has tasked itself to accelerate the fielding of FLRAA as part of a newly debuted transformation initiative. And while speeding up any major procurement program contains substantial risk, Army aviation leaders and Textron’s Bell, the company chosen to build the service’s brand new advanced tiltrotor, say the program is unique in the sense that significant risk was driven down through digital design, engineering and a technology demonstration effort, where it flew the V-280 Valor tiltrotor for over 200 hours.
“Normally you would build prototypes, then you would go to test,” Poquette said. “And during test, you’re not doing a whole lot of building…