Army releases request for industry feedback on Next-Gen Command and Control

As the Army gears up to begin awarding contracts for its Next Generation Command and Control initiative, it is asking industry for feedback to help guide its program of record.

A request for information, released Monday, seeks vendors’ input that aligns with NGC2 contracting priorities.

NGC2 is a top modernization priority for the Army. As the service transitions from over 20 years of operations against technologically inferior enemies to preparations for large-scale combat operations across vast distances against sophisticated adversaries, the current systems and architectures for command and control are not suitable for success, senior officials contend.

The forthcoming program aims to provide commanders and units a new approach to information, data and command and control through agile and software-based architectures.

Top Army officials have stated they are approaching the program differently than others in the past, looking for a more collaborative process with industry to help guide where to go — an acknowledgement that the government doesn’t always have the right answers and needs help from those at the tip of the latest and greatest tech. The service is also looking to tailor the contracting strategy differently than previous efforts.

“Market research and industry feedback is key to shaping smart contracts,” Danielle Moyer, executive director of Army Contracting Command, said in a statement. “We not only want to make sure we have the appropriate criteria to select the best affordable solutions, but that we are really keying in on post-award. By appropriately aligning incentives and disincentives to drive the right behaviors and competition from the awardees long-term, we’ll ensure that we’re not only getting the best deal, but the best solutions.”

The awards the Army is planning are structured to enable multiple iterative and competitive opportunities for contractors to provide technology to NGC2. The Army notes that no one company can provide a total solution for the initiative, and thus it will need to onboard vendor teams for additional components and layers available after the initial prototyping awards.

“The government’s actually not really good at building escape hatches into our contracts, and we need to be. As much as we’re talking about bringing on the right players, hey, we’re going to get rid of the wrong players. If we aren’t being good teammates and you aren’t being good teammates, or somebody out there isn’t being a good teammate, we don’t want to team with them,” Alex Miller, chief technology officer for the chief of staff of the Army, said in December at the Army’s Technical Exchange Meeting regarding the approach the service will be taking with industry on NGC2. “There are differences of how we’re approaching this, not only to make sure that taxpayers get the value for their dollar, but also soldiers get what is actually useful to them.”

Officials want industry to weigh in on a draft prototype statement of objectives and a draft indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity performance work statement. Draft requests for proposals will follow this RFI, slated for late January, with a final RFP planned tentatively for February.

“Contracting and delivery of Next Generation Command and Control capabilities will be deliberate and iterative, geared toward commander needs and dependent upon the innovation of industry,” said Mark Kitz, program executive officer for command, control, communications and network. “This RFI is another step in continuous iteration with industry and operational users, so that as the Army responds to changing missions, we can rapidly bring in the right capabilities to deliver operationally relevant solutions.”

While the program office will be running the eventual program of record, for which contracts are expected to be awarded by May 2025, the C2 cross-functional team and Army Futures Command have been running prototyping efforts to help inform what’s needed. Those efforts will culminate at the Project Convergence Capstone 5 event later this year.