25th Infantry Division soldiers concluded Exercise Lightning Surge 2, a weeklong event focused on evaluating the Army's next-generation command and control prototype, at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Feb. 27.
The operational prototyping and training event was intended to improve soldier lethality by rapidly delivering data for long-range fires and enabling faster, more informed battlefield decisions, thereby improving response speed and mission effectiveness.
Next-generation command and control, or NGC2, is a key part of the Army's effort to modernize its forces, and for the 25th Infantry Division, that means planning for the unique challenges of the Indo-Pacific theater. NGC2 is intended to enable faster decision-making, improve responsiveness, and enhance mission success in environments where speed can mean the difference between success and failure.
"The benefits of what we're doing here — in the iterations we're doing with industry — is really getting after the artillery aspects of how we see and sense a target, and how we quickly transmit the information from what is seen and sensed to our guns through multiple different paths for resiliency," said Army Maj. Gen. James B. Bartholomees, 25th Infantry Division and U.S. Army Hawaii commanding general. "Because ultimately, [as] we're learning from the war in Ukraine … we have got to constrict this cycle down. We've got to make it shorter."
At the heart of this challenge is a complex problem that the military has faced for decades: getting separate, specialized computer systems to communicate seamlessly. For soldiers on the ground, this has often meant manually relaying information from one screen to another, a time-consuming process prone to error.
NGC2 aims to provide capabilities to address that challenge, incrementally expanding through a series of technical and operational "sprints" with soldiers and industry. As one of these sprint events, Lightning Surge 2 focused on several difficult parts of the network: the "first mile" from the sensor and the "last mile" to the weapon system.
"What we have done the last two weeks is we've upgraded the last mile, the launchers and the guns, with updated radio systems and also private 5G [network]," said Army Lt. Col. Adam Brinkman, 25th Infantry Division's command, control and communications commander. "And what that has allowed us to do is to provide more options to the formation on how to accelerate and send the missions all the way out to the edge."
During the exercise, soldiers executed a real-world test of the digital kill chain. The process began with a forward observer identifying a simulated enemy target. Instead of radioing coordinates, the operator used a digital device to send target data into the network.
That data instantly appeared on a shared digital map at the command post. Leaders quickly verified and approved the mission with a few clicks. The approved fire mission then went to an M77 howitzer gun crew.
This eliminated manual data entry and greatly reduced time and errors common with voice commands. Switching from manual to automated processes denotes a significant leap in effectiveness and accuracy, according to division noncommissioned officers.
Army Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Alexander, 25th Infantry Division artillery operations sergeant major, explained that dramatically shortening the time it takes to execute a fire mission directly increases a crew's survivability. "I can shoot and move and not have to worry about [counterfire]," he said. "Basically, it keeps our own people safe."
Ultimately, the success of the next-generation command and control prototype will be determined by soldiers. Their feedback gives Army developers vital data. It identifies effective features and areas for improvement. This ensures the ecosystem will better fit operational needs and soldier workflows.
The Lightning Surge soldier-led "campaign of learning" continues in late April, when lessons from Schofield Barracks will inform operations during Lightning Surge 3 in the Philippines.