{"id":4812,"date":"2026-04-27T00:07:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/?p=4812"},"modified":"2026-04-27T00:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:07:08","slug":"accelerating-transformative-technologies-aids-commanders-readiness-across-the-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/?p=4812","title":{"rendered":"Accelerating Transformative Technologies Aids Commanders\u2019 Readiness Across the Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii (April 21, 2026) \u2013 With instrumental support from industry partners, the 25th Infantry Division accelerated its digital kill chain in just three months using advanced AI-driven technologies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As part of the Army\u2019s Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) \u201ccommercial first\u201d effort, the division joins the 4th Infantry Division (4ID) to prototype modern technologies that make data more usable and accessible to commanders across all the warfighting function technologies.<\/p>\n

NGC2 provides a \u201cfull stack\u201d capability ecosystem, comprised from the top-down of Apps, Data\/AI, Infrastructure, and Transport capabilities. Integrating AI into the NGC2 stack will enhance the Army\u2019s competitive advantage, however, Army leaders emphasize that at no time will commanders lose their autonomy while conducting missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI will continue to be a decision aid, and accelerate the decision cycle, not replace commanders, who will make the final judgement calls,\u201d said Brig. Gen Shane Taylor, Capability Program Executive Command and Control Information Network (CPE C2IN).<\/p>\n

Through a series of operational exercises, Ivy Stings for the 4ID and Lightning Surges for the 25th Infantry Division (25ID), Soldiers continue to identify in real time which technologies aid the mission, and which need improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Soldier\u2019s feedback is the most important product we generate,\u201d said Lt. Col. Andrew Batule, 25ID Innovation Officer. \u201cThe Soldiers in the TOC [Tactical Operations Center] and on the gunline are the ones who tell us, in real time, if this is making us more lethal. Their direct input is what informs every single software update and ensures we are building the right tools for the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the time between Lightning Surge 1 and Lightning Surge 2, division leadership, artillery (DIVARTY), and technical staff stated they achieved a digital end-to-end workflow that accelerated the fires process by integrating four key commercial capabilities within the NGC2 stack: An advanced data platform supported by an AI mission system; modern, automated target workflow software; enhanced electronic warfare capabilities and 5G data transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a technology perspective, \u2018commercial first\u2019 means the tech is available to everybody,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIt\u2019s only as good as our ability to rapidly inject it, train it, field it and then replace it with the next solution right behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This full-speed-ahead iteration and integration approach is ensuring the Army arrives at best-of-breed commercial solutions tailorable to any unit\u2019s mission, including the contested environment across the Pacific theater\u2019s tyranny of distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to move out very quickly and iterate fast,\u201d said Maj. Gen. James Bartholomees, 25ID commanding general. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly why our model is\u2014experiment with it, train with it, and then deploy it forward into the terrain with our allies to both assure them and deter our adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Refined data, modern fires app <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The division\u2019s call for fires chain consists of forward observers identifying a potential target and transmitting target data to the Fires Direction Center, allowing the fires direction officer to calculate if, when, and how to engage kinetic fires.<\/p>\n

Industry teams and division personnel collaborated to accelerate this process by establishing a prototype, AI-aided data platform integrated with the Army\u2019s new app-based, data-centric fires command and control system, called the Artillery Execution Suite, or AXS.<\/p>\n

During the event, forward observers used hand-held devices to extract data from the edge sensors \u2013 both on the ground and in the air \u2013 which was ingested into the data platform and then simultaneously into AXS. New algorithms calculated the specific type of data ingested from the sensors to publish to the DIVARTY common operational picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now at a place where we are feeding all the data into the data platform,\u201d said Maj. Rebecca Borrebach, 25ID G6 data officer. \u201cOur data is accessible, and now an application can subscribe to the data it needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Controlling the electronic spectrum <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Before the forward observers can confidently share information on a potential target, the commander must conduct an Electromagnetic Warfare (EW) assessment to identify and understand what signals an adversary may be transmitting to interrupt the mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost all warfighting functions need access to EW data,\u201d said Cpt. Curtis Hart, assistant product manager for the Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool (EWPMT).<\/p>\n

\u201cAviators want to know where they can fly without their GPS navigation being degraded. Artillerymen want to know where they can employ precision-guided munitions without interference. Ground maneuver forces want to know where they can expect radio transmissions to be unreliable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

NGC2 allows this data, previously only readily available to the CEMA [Cyber Electromagnetic Activities] cell, to be widely disseminated and used by these sister warfighting functions, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the eventual addition of AI, I feel confident that the data my EW team aggregates will inform commanders and their staffs throughout the division,\u201d said CW2(P) Kris Perez, Electromagnetic Warfare Technician, 25ID. \u201cThis will enable them to make more timely, informed decisions, which will increase the division\u2019s lethality.\u201d<\/p>\n

5G-Transport Diversity<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unlike the 4ID, which is prototyping NGC2\u2019s full stack, the 25ID is primarily prototyping the data and application software on top of its previously fielded modern \u201cC2 Fix\u201d transport and infrastructure. However, the NGC2 prototype effort provided flexibility for the unit and industry teams to experiment with desired capabilities, based on the division\u2019s missions, including the need to operate in the degraded environments often encountered in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus for Lightning Surge 2 was the \u2018first mile, last mile\u2019 challenge,\u201d said Lt. Col. Adam Brinkman, 25ID G6. \u201cWe used what we learned from our last event to upgrade the launchers and guns with better radios and private 5G, which gives the commander more resilient options to get a fire mission from the sensor all the way to the shooter at the tactical edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first time in the Army, private 5G served as the primary pathway to travel from the fires direction officer to the guns, with modern satellite radios available as the secondary transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are implementing incremental lessons learned from the 4ID, where its personnel viewed the fires chain using 5G in one of its previous NGC2 Ivy Sting events,\u201d said Lt. Col. Clarke Brown, product manager for Network Modernization, Capability Program Executive Command and Control Information Network (CPE C2IN). \u201cPushing the capability to actually transport the call for fires down to the field artillery Soldiers was an exciting accomplishment for the unit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lightning Surge and Ivy Sting exercises continue to leverage data and AI technologies that deliver information across all warfighting functions to enhance commanders\u2019 decision making.<\/p>\n

According to Bartholomees, the Lightning Surge events are more than exercises; rather, they are \u201crehearsals\u201d as he leads his division into multi-national Indo-Pacific exercises to train in real-life electromagnetic, cyber, distance and denied environment challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe exercise in the Hawaiian Islands across the archipelago so we can then project those forces into the first island chain within the Philippines,\u201d Bartholomees said. \u201cOur next Lightning Surge series will be in conjunction with Philippines joint and combined exercises, in which we\u2019ll be able to put all this together and really test out the concepts that Next Generation C2 is delivering.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Kathryn Bailey, CPE C2IN Public Communications Directorate<\/em><\/p>\n

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SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii (April 21, 2026) \u2013 With instrumental support from industry partners, the 25th Infantry Division accelerated its digital kill chain in just three months using advanced AI-driven technologies. As part of the Army\u2019s Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) \u201ccommercial first\u201d effort, the division joins the 4th Infantry Division (4ID) to prototype modern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-army"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4814,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812\/revisions\/4814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}