A soldier with the 25th Infantry Division prepares to send a fires mission as part of experimentation to integrate next-generation command-and-control systems at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, on Feb. 24, 2026. (Hayden Howell/U.S. Army)
Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii are testing a prototype command-and-control system designed to speed how the Army detects threats, makes decisions and strikes targets on the battlefield.
Command and control refers to how commanders collect information, communicate with units and direct operations. The Army’s Next Generation Command and Control system, or NGC2, is intended to integrate artillery, intelligence and logistics and connect sensors, commanders and shooters faster and more flexibly than current systems.
The “Tropic Lightning” division is one of two Army units selected to experiment with NGC2. The other is the 4th Infantry Division based in Colorado.
The 4th ID began advancing the prototype last year through rapid tests known as Ivy Spring. The 25th ID launched its own sprint series, Lightning Surge, last month, with the second week-long iteration ending Friday.
“It’s a fundamentally new approach to how we will deliver [command and control] and networking capabilities through the Army,” Brig. Gen. Shane Taylor, capability program executive for the Capability Program Executive Command and Control Information Network, said during a conference call with reporters Wednesday at the division’s headquarters on Schofield Barracks.
Taylor was joined by Maj. Gen. James Bartholomees, commander of 25th ID and U.S. Army Hawaii.
The Army is moving away from “stovepipe warfighting systems” that force commanders to manually integrate multiple platforms and data streams, Taylor said.
With NGC2, the Army is starting from scratch, setting aside legacy systems and building a network based on modern technologies already available, he said.
“So, what you’re seeing from that concept is what’s being executed today in 25th and the 4th Infantry Divisions,” he said. “It’s prototyping at scale.”
Industry partners are embedded with soldiers during Lightning Surge to rapidly adjust systems, rather than following traditional development timelines that can take years, Taylor said. About 17 vendors are participating in Lightning Surge 2, “living day-to-day with soldiers collecting feedback on these new technologies,” he said.
A central principle of the effort is “commercial first,” prioritizing existing industry solutions over custom development, Taylor said. “We want to do development as a last resort,” he said.
The prototype approach also abandons fixed acquisition milestones, reflecting a system designed to evolve continuously, Taylor said.
“For many years, we tried to put a square peg in a round hole by making all the formations use the same kit with an acknowledgment that the divisions fight very differently,” he said.
In December, the 4th ID was assigned to I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., making it a sister division to the 25th, Bartholomees said.
Despite that connection, the divisions have sharply different missions, he said.
“They are a Stryker mechanized division and completely mounted, whereas I am a light-fighting transformed division that relies upon the ability to move a light footprint through dense jungle terrain,” he said.
Each division is shaping how it moves data from sensors to shooters based on its operational needs, Bartholomees said.
Lightning Surge 3 is planned for Operation Pathways in the Philippines in April, he said.
