The Army's Next-Generation Command and Control program is leaving the test range. I Corps, the Joint Base Lewis-McChord headquarters that commands four Army divisions oriented on the Pacific, will be the first operational formation to receive the NGC2 common data layer under a five-year Army contract with Anduril Industries worth up to $1.8 billion, GovConWire reported. The deal opens with a $162.8 million base period, and options account for the rest of the ceiling.
Anduril announced the award this week. The company said the contract shifts NGC2 from division-level prototyping to operational deployment, according to GovConWire. Defence Blog put the shift more plainly: "The award moves NGC2 from prototype testing with a single division to operational fielding at corps level."
Why I Corps Is a Harder Test Than the 4th Infantry Division
NGC2 is the Army's attempt to replace a patchwork of separate command, intelligence and fire-control systems with one shared data network. Sensors, weapons, vehicles and applications from different vendors plug into a common data layer instead of each running on its own hardware and software, so soldiers no longer have to re-enter information by hand as it moves between systems. Anduril's Lattice software supplies that layer, tying together applications, artificial intelligence models, sensors and vehicles, according to GovConWire.
The prototype work happened inside a single division at Fort Carson, Colorado. I Corps poses a different problem. GovConWire reported that the corps oversees four divisions in the Pacific region, where deployments may sit thousands of miles apart and must coordinate with joint and allied forces amid disrupted communications. Anduril said NGC2 must link those separated units and keep operations running when segments of the wider network go down.
The company has left the details of the I Corps rollout open. Defence Blog noted that "The company did not say which I Corps units will receive the system first, how many devices or vehicles will be equipped, or when fielding begins." Neither the Army nor Anduril has published a fielding schedule for the corps in the sources reviewed for this article.
What the $99.6M Ivy Sting Prototype Proved, by Anduril's Account
The corps-level contract builds on about a year of field testing with the 4th Infantry Division. In July 2025, the Army awarded an Anduril-led team that included Palantir and Microsoft a $99.6 million prototype agreement, which GovConWire described as an other transaction authority agreement. Anduril engineers began working with soldiers weeks later through a series of exercises called Ivy Sting, revising software after each field event.
In the first Ivy Sting event, in September 2025, 4th Infantry Division soldiers fired M777 howitzers using artillery fire-control software running on Lattice, Defence Blog reported. By Ivy Mass in May 2026, the whole division was operating on NGC2, with more than 2,500 end-user devices and a range of applications on the same data network, according to Anduril.
The company's performance claims are its own and have not been independently verified in the reporting. Anduril says NGC2 cut artillery fire timelines by 90 percent compared with legacy systems and sped up airspace coordination. It also says later exercises showed Army, Marine Corps and Navy systems sharing data directly, and that the network kept supporting units after they lost connection to higher headquarters. The Army validated NGC2 against an opposing force during Project Convergence-Capstone 6 in July, GovConWire reported.
Where Lockheed Martin's 25th Infantry Division Prototype Fits
Anduril was not the only team building NGC2. The Army ran a second prototype in parallel: the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii tested a version led by Lockheed Martin through its Lightning Surge exercises, including during Exercise Balikatan 2026 in the Philippines, according to Defence Blog.
In June 2026, after both divisions' exercises, the Army set a common data baseline for NGC2 and picked Anduril to lead it, working with Palantir and Raft. The October contract follows that June selection and moves the baseline from prototyping into fielding.
The sources do not say what role, if any, the Lockheed-led architecture will play as the Army scales the Anduril-led baseline, a question that matters for vendors on the Lockheed team.
Two to Three Divisions a Year: The Pace of the NGC2 Rollout
The I Corps award is a starting point, not the endpoint. GovConWire reported that the Army plans to field NGC2 to all 11 divisions within the five-year Future Years Defense Program, at a pace of two to three divisions annually.
The open design matters for that schedule. Anduril says the architecture is built so that no single company controls the Army's whole command-and-control system, and that the Army can add new sensors, applications or weapons from other vendors without rebuilding the underlying network for each one. If that holds in fielding, follow-on spending would flow to many vendors integrating with the layer rather than to one prime rebuilding it division by division.
The award also adds to Anduril's growing Army portfolio. GovConWire noted the company's other Army work includes a potential $20 billion enterprise contract for its commercial IT platforms and a $65 million TITAN production order covering hardware and shelter integration.
What It Means for Contractors
For companies that build sensors, fire-control applications, AI models or tactical radios, the practical question is now integration with Lattice-based NGC2, not competition to replace it. The Army has chosen a data layer, set a baseline, and funded corps-scale fielding. Vendors whose products cannot exchange data on that layer risk being left out of the division-by-division rollout.
The financial structure deserves attention. Only $162.8 million is committed in the base period; the bulk of the $1.8 billion depends on the Army exercising options over five years. Subcontractors and teammates should treat the ceiling as potential value and watch for option exercises tied to I Corps milestones.
The Pacific focus also shapes requirements. Firms selling into this program should expect emphasis on operating with degraded or intermittent communications, coordinating with joint and allied forces, and linking units spread across long distances, the conditions Anduril itself cited as the reason I Corps is harder than its earlier testing.
Finally, the open questions are opportunities to watch. Which I Corps units go first, how many devices get equipped, and when fielding starts have not been disclosed. Those answers will set the timing for integration work, training support and hardware buys across the corps.
