NGC2 CSO

COMMERCIAL SOLUTIONS OPENING (CSO) NEXT

GENERATION COMMAND AND CONTROL (NGC2)

W15P7T-25-S-0001

Capability Program Executive, C2 Information Network (CPE C2IN)

20 July 2026

SECTION 1 – INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND

The U.S. Army is transforming command and control (C2) for the current and future fight through the Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) effort. The U.S. Army is replacing fragmented, vertical warfighting systems with a unified technology stack architecture of heterogenous software and hardware components. This transformation ensures data from any sensor, shooter, or warfighting system is accessible from a common data layer, and any application, user dashboard, algorithm, or AI agent accesses the same data source to support Warfighter operations. The architecture eliminates silo-ed data. To dominate on the modern battlefield, commanders and the algorithms that assist them with data synthesis must have access to data on demand, enabling faster and superior decision-making over our adversaries. The NGC2 technology stack enables a multi-vendor approach with heterogenous components to continually leverage the full breadth of technical innovation across the commercial sphere, especially with the rate of change in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) advancements and small form factor compute devices. To allow heterogeneity but minimize system complexity, the NGC2 architecture necessitates a common software control plane that enables remote configuration and management of each software and hardware component. Collectively, the components provide integrated data, compute infrastructure, and network transport layers. Data from any component of any layer of the technology stack must be discoverable from the common data layer and able to be consumed by any other applicable component of the architecture.
As a heterogenous NGC2 ecosystem, the modular components of the architecture rely on commercial best-practices for application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs) to stitch the seams between components. This architecture design is explicitly designed for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) to ensure rapid delivery of updates, leveraging modern practices aligned with the open container initiative (OCI). Importantly, warfighters must be able to flexibly access applications and data from a family of compute infrastructure, ranging from robust enterprise cloud infrastructure down to austere, limited edge compute infrastructure.