Gen. James Mingus, vice chief of staff at the U.S. Army, said network changes and counter-unmanned aerial systems are some of his priorities within the service branch, Breaking Defense reported Monday.
Mingus said the military branch is focusing on its networks under the umbrella terms “C2 Fix” and “C2 Next” covering current and future programs.
Near-term projects fall under C2 Fix, which seeks to ensure that warfighters can communicate and fight on the battlefield.
C2 Next is the Army’s prototyping effort with industry focused on experimenting with a “data-centric” command and control system powered by network transport. The initiative is focused on scalability, open and advanced modular architectures and the ability to quickly iterate.
The general highlighted the critical need to advance the development of next-generation C2 platforms.
“We’re integrating a lot of things. We’re figuring out how to do things faster as a joint force but until we start to accelerate convergence, common platforms, common messaging, common standards, convergence of data, that’s got to be the next evolution out of this,” Mingus commented.
When it comes to counter-UAS, the former director of the Joint Staff hinted at the need for a joint organization responsible for developing and procuring systems for the services.
“We’re probably at a crossroads of not, you know, a complete wholesale reorg but how could we reorganize ourselves even a little better than we are now,” Mingus remarked. “Instead of independent services developing their own counter-UAS, maybe a joint entity that’s working that problem set together, the power of all the services together to try and solve that problem in scale and mass to keep pace.”
