mobile command – At Fort Carson, Colorado, the US Army ran a division-level drill for its Next Generation Command and Control system, designed to keep command posts mobile, smaller, and harder to find. The goal: survive an enemy’s hunt for battlefield communications by spreadi
For the US Army, the battlefield no longer ends at the frontline. It begins in the invisible traffic of battlefield communications—high-volume transmissions that an advanced adversary can detect and target.
That’s the pressure behind a new approach to how the Army sets up command posts. especially as future warfare is expected to be fast-paced and chaotic. The Army’s worry is straightforward: command posts send and receive information about battlefield operations. and those emissions can become a beacon.
The stakes sharpened after Ukraine demonstrated how quickly those beacons can be found. Strikes on Russian command posts killed more than a dozen generals, underscoring a vulnerability the US Army is trying to solve.
In response, the Army is pushing Next Generation Command and Control—also called NGC2—a total revamp of how it communicates and fights. Much of NGC2’s capability has been built in the last few months, and the system is being tested in increasingly realistic scenarios.
Last month, at Fort Carson, Colorado, the Army ran a division-level drill with NGC2. The exercise paired a blue and red team and put troops through a realistic combat scenario using many capabilities the Army anticipates it could face in a potential conflict. including electronic warfare. cyber systems. and space-based effects. It was the most complex testing of NGC2 thus far, with troops wargaming the system.
Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, told reporters: “We learned a lot about how to employ that technology and what it feels like when that technology is employed against you.”
The drill’s physical footprint was part of the message. Around Fort Carson, camouflage tents were spread far out across miles. Each concealed vehicles running NGC2—the vehicles forming the command posts for NGC2. The design is meant to put those posts further away from one another and. most importantly. make them mobile and potentially more survivable.
Anduril Industries was the prime contractor that built the 4th ID’s command system under a $100 million contract awarded in 2025.
Inside the exercise, the posts were operated by only a few soldiers. Maj. Dan Hickox said he could set up and tear down the equipment in about 30 minutes, adding: “I’d say at the most, like about 30 minutes for us to set up, tear down.” He said the netting covering the post took the most time.
Soldiers reported that at other posts, the timeframe was similar. They described packing up, loading the vehicle, and getting on the move in half an hour or less.
The dispersion across areas—sometimes miles and not within visual contact—felt jarring at first. Hickox said: “If you were to tell me about eight months ago that I would be by myself” not near complimentary teams. “I probably would have a heart attack. I need to get in there in person, sit down next to people, be able to talk. But now there is chat architecture and everything else, it doesn’t make any difference.”.
Command posts matter because they are relay points for information and communication across warfighting needs: from targeting to medical support. tracking enemy movements. and monitoring how the fight is going. Inside these posts, Army leaders and specialists operate as hubs of intelligence and situational awareness that inform battlefield decisions.
Since those posts are vital, they are prime targets. Ukraine’s success in attacking Russian commanders helped drive the US Army’s shift toward shrinking and dispersing posts—moving from large. static footprints that can be found. targeted. and destroyed quickly toward smaller nodes that are designed to be more survivable.
Mobility isn’t just about relocation. Soldiers said that while the vehicle is on the move to another location. they can still communicate. run through data. and remain connected to other posts. There may be a drop in loading or sending time, but soldiers said the change is not too noticeable. Each command post also includes built-in redundancy. meaning its functions—such as finding targets—can be handled by another post if one is offline or damaged.
Hickox said: “The fact that we have the ability to maintain communications with folks and it’s not just exclusive to chat” but also voice call. “is really impressive.” He described the practical advantage as reducing downtime between an order and reports as they are executed—small delays that can add up.
To make detection harder, the Army is also treating the electromagnetic environment as something the force must navigate. Soldiers said the vehicle could be driven to locations that help it hide or reduce the chances of being electronically detected. including a ditch or within trees. In an urban environment, they said the post could be moved into built-up areas.
They also described how, while moving, the vehicle can blend into the noise—operating on the same frequencies or connections as other systems or vehicles, or appearing similar on the spectrum to other Army assets so it becomes harder for the enemy to tell which signals belong to a command post.
Soldiers follow guidelines from command on how to hide in the spectrum, crank up the noise to overwhelm frequencies, or choose which networks to use. If they lose connection or get jammed, they said there are backup ways to send data on NGC2.
Lt. Col. Tim Chess said: “I think a lot of it comes down to what we think the enemy is going to be able to monitor and then adjusting from there.”
Electronic warfare sat at the center of the exercise as well. Soldiers worked through interference and jamming effects. Ellis described some of those moments as learning opportunities: soldiers identifying the source of jamming and then destroying it to resume connection.
Ellis said: “So they also feel the effects of what happens when you destroy it or why you should focus on it because then your radio communications and your digital communications all get better,” adding: “We’re balancing some learning objectives with also reinforcing some good behaviors.”
Taken together. the drill was a test of two ideas at once: communications can’t be turned off. and command posts can’t simply sit still. The Army’s answer is a system built to keep functioning while it moves—small enough to relocate quickly. dispersed enough to complicate targeting. and resilient enough to keep connections alive even under electronic pressure.
US Army Next Generation Command and Control NGC2 Fort Carson Anduril Industries electronic warfare cyber systems command posts Russia China Ukraine division-level drill battlefield communications