US Army Tests NGC2, Drones in 10,000-Soldier Fort Irwin Urban Assault
Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Sep 5
US Army Tests NGC2, Drones in 10,000-Soldier Fort Irwin Urban Assault
2 articles · Updated · Business Insider · Sep 5
Summary
Nearly 10,000 soldiers at Fort Irwin used a mock city assault to test whether drones, battlefield software and other new systems improved combat performance against a peer-adversary scenario.
NGC2—the Army’s prototype AI-enabled command network—helped some troops track friendly positions and possible enemy locations, but others said connectivity and jamming left it largely unusable.
Drones proved most useful before troops entered the city, extending surveillance up to 4 kilometers, while ground robots and other tech saw limited use once fighting shifted to close-quarters urban combat.
Bradley crews and dismounted infantry still relied on core tactics to clear buildings, protect vehicles and seize key targets including a jail and central palace; one Bradley was knocked out during the exercise.
Army leaders said those mixed results were the point of Project Convergence Capstone, using failures in the desert to decide which technologies merit further development or abandonment.