Soldier-ready command and control

How Leidos moves Army NGC2 from experiment to operational advantage

Why it matters

• Mission command modernization is essential for winning modern wars. 
• More data alone doesn’t create better decisions; trusted, usable information does.
• Fielding new capabilities requires integration, training and soldier feedback.

Today’s Army commanders are faced with contested signals, degraded networks, and command posts that have to move faster than the enemy can target them. They must make decisions in an information deluge, and they have to do it faster than the enemy and at mission speed.

Winning in that environment means command and control that keeps working when communications are delayed, intermittent, or denied. It means systems that can quickly filter and deliver the right information under pressure, to the right people. 

That is the challenge the U.S. Army is addressing through Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2). It is also the purpose behind Ivy Sting, a series of operational experiments in realistic conditions, designed to test new command-and-control approaches, in which Leidos has participated since the program’s early stages.

One foundation, many missions: How NGC2 works across Army units

At its core, NGC2 reflects the Army's intent to move toward a common, configurable command-and-control solution that can be used across the force.

“The Army wants a solution that can be used across its entirety when it comes to tactical communications,” said Chip Pearson, Warfighter Readiness Program Manager at Leidos. “That has not necessarily been the way it’s been done in the past, and so that’s part of where NGC2 is trying to head.”

That flexibility is essential.

A heavy division, an airborne unit, and a mobile infantry formation all have different tactical communications needs. They may rely on the same core system, but “a common service-wide solution must be tailored to meet the specific needs of those individual units,” said Pearson.

Why does any of this matter? Because commanders need to get the right information to make decisions faster than our adversaries.

The mission is not more data, it is better decisions: Making command-and-control data usable

Modern command and control is now a data challenge as much as a communications challenge.
 
Soldiers and commanders have access to more information than ever before. But more information does not automatically create better decisions. Data has to be collected, filtered, trusted, and presented in a way people can use under pressure. 

“This little phone I carry around potentially represents the computing power of a division-level command post back in Desert Storm,” said J.B. Burton, Senior Director of Business Development for Decision Advantage at Leidos. “That level of power is now fixed to a soldier on a device that allows them to operate with enormous amounts of information. But that information is only useful if it is accessible.” 

That is why usability matters.

Pearson said the Army has emphasized that industry solutions should be primarily “plug and play.” Soldiers need familiar interfaces and practical workflows, not systems that require extensive retraining before they can be useful. 

“The filtering of information through the tactical communications network is the biggest portion we’re trying to help work through,” he said.
 

Built with soldiers, not just for them: How field feedback shapes NGC2

Leidos' Warfighter Readiness work supports the transition from experimentation toward operational use. But that only succeeds if soldiers can actually use the result when the mission demands it. That's why Leidos keeps the end user close throughout the process.

Teams sit with soldiers, observe how they use prototypes, listen to what creates friction, and carry that feedback directly into configuration and integration work. 

"We're with the soldiers who are going to be the end users," Pearson said. "We're in the rooms with them, going through these prototypes, the configurations, and the integration, listening to what works, what doesn't, what they like. Then we take that feedback back to the Army about how this really needs to work for the people who will use it at the end of the day." 

That feedback loop shapes everything downstream.  

"Leidos is supporting Army transformation efforts with more than just warehousing and kitting," Burton said. The hands-on field work builds a ground-level understanding of the complexity soldiers face, but the deeper contribution is turning prototype concepts into products warfighters can, and will, actually use. “We're not just sustaining, we're transforming prototype solutions into usable warfighting capabilities.”
 

Ivy Sting turns learning into capability: Moving NGC2 toward operational use

The Ivy Sting series of exercises gives the Army a practical way to test, learn and adjust. Each iteration brings hardware, software, and operational feedback together. The point is not to protect the first “answer” to the challenge. It’s to find the right one.

After each experiment, Leidos teams help translate what was learned into the next configuration. That could mean refining a kit, adjusting how a node is represented, or preparing equipment so it better reflects the needs of the unit receiving it.

“We’re now reconfiguring that kit so that when it is fielded, it is configured and built to meet the end user’s requirements identified during experimentation,” Burton said. “We’re translating all of that refinement of what the end user needs to make it work and transforming it into operational capability.” 

Leidos has supported Ivy Sting iterations tied to regional hub nodes, command post modernization, current C2 capabilities, and the culminating Ivy Mass event. The company also supported the Army’s “Right to Integrate” hackathon, known informally as Operation Jailbreak, which focused on solving integration challenges across a crowded vendor field. 

That integration challenge is central to NGC2. Many companies can bring strong technology. The Army also needs that technology to work together.

What sets Leidos apart: An integrated approach to Army NGC2

Leidos brings a full-lifecycle view to NGC2, from prototype transformation, network configuration, and integration to training, sustainment, and field support. That range matters as the Army moves from experimentation to operational capability.

“We are a proven and trusted industry partner that has been part of the NGC2 effort since its early stages,” Burton said. “We can support prototype transformation into functional end products, network configurations to help ensure interoperability, and integration to help ensure that what we build, and what others build, can connect to the Next Generation C2 environment.” 

As NGC2 matures, the challenge won’t be choosing the right technology. It will be making that technology work across units, vendors, networks, and mission needs. 

And that’s where Leidos helps deliver, by connecting systems that need to work together and training soldiers to use them.
 

Key takeaways

1. Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) aims to give the Army a common, configurable command-and-control solution that integrates data from multiple sources into a single, continuous operating picture.
2. Leidos supports the transition from experimentation toward operational use by keeping soldiers close to the development process. 
3. Ivy Sting exercises turned field feedback into refined, mission-ready capability, and Leidos helped translate each iteration into the next.
    

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