NGC Demos JADC2 Enabling Capabilities in U.S. Army’s Project Convergence

Northrop Grumman Corporation programs recently completed successful testing and demonstrations as part of U.S. Army’s Project Convergence, the service’s contribution to the military-wide Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2).

The testing demonstrated Northrop Grumman’s architectural capability to integrate networks, sensors, and effectors across domains for joint operations.

The Northrop Grumman systems involved included the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS), Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS), and the Marine Corps AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR).

“Project Convergence provided us another opportunity to demonstrate our architecture’s ability to deliver joint connectivity across the services,” said Christine Harbison, vice president and general manager, combat systems and mission readiness, Northrop Grumman. “That open architecture allows utilization of satellite communications to conduct remote engagements of target missiles, demonstrating our ability to connect the battlespace for all-domain operations.”

During live-fire exercises at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, numerous tactical ballistic missile surrogates were launched. A mix of ground, airborne, and space-based sensors sent tracking data via satellite communications to an Engagement Operations Center at Fort Bliss, Texas. There, soldier operators remotely tracked the targets and initiated the launch of missiles to engage the targets.

Also during Project Convergence, the Army conducted a series of complex network and communication exercises in which IBCS supported the execution of precision strike missions, in addition to conducting an integrated air and missile defense mission. It fused data from an F-35 sensor to identify and track a ground target and provided the data to Army Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) and AFATDS engaged the target.

Project Convergence is the U.S. Army’s campaign of learning to aggressively pursue an Artificial Intelligence and machine learning-enabled battlefield management system and is the U.S. Army’s contribution to the military-wide Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2). Project Convergence 21 was an event that tested its sensor-to-sensor capabilities as a Joint Force through a series of seven scenarios.