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How the Futures Command is helping Army to envision NGC2

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7 months ago

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When it comes to developing the next generation command and control systems, the Army is taking a different approach to capture those requirements.

The team working on program development issued a characteristics of need late in 2024 that focuses on the end result and not the map for getting there.

Joe Welch, the deputy to the commanding general of the Army Futures Command, said the characteristics of need is a central starting point for the NGC2 program.

Joe Welch is the deputy to the Commanding General of the Army Futures Command.

“The characteristic of need is really a signal to industry that we have a problem, and we have a problem statement, and we have an idea about what the solution or solutions may be, and then we think they have some characteristics associated with them,” said Welch in an interview with Federal News Network at the recent Army TEM conference in Savannah, Ga. “But it’s really more of a signal that we’re dealing with a complex problem and that we really need to understand industry’s input into our problem statement, not into what we are saying the solution needs to be, but what our problem is. So that’s really what the characteristic of need statement is all about.”

The Army released the characteristics of need for NGC2 in mid-December. It is a precursor to a bigger multi-year effort to update and standardize command and control across the service.

The Army Futures Command is taking on the job to create the requirements documents to meet the end goals defined by Command and Control Cross Functional Team. The futures command then will provide those documents to the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications and Networks (PEO-C3N) for the solutions.

This multi-organization effort is a recognition that building the next generation of command and control is a lot more difficult and complex than previous development efforts.

Welch said with the range of technology solutions available and the idea that needs and technologies will continually evolve, NGC2 must be agile enough to meet the needs of commanders and soldiers as they emerge.

Always incorporating lessons

The Army has been working on NGC2 for much of the past two years, releasing the first version of the characteristics of need in late spring 2024 and then using an exercise called NetModX to help further refine the document.

The current approach to command and control is disparate and lacks interoperability. A common complaint among commanders is they don’t train as they would fight, which means learning new systems and capabilities in theater.

Welch said the characteristics of need is a living document and will continue to evolve as the Army tests out new technologies and processes.

“The single biggest thing that I think that we learned through this experimentation that we did back in the fall called NetModX is if you think about different war fighting functions and the data and information needed to support those and how they come together for a commander, the need to provide more rapid situational understanding to be able to make more rapid decisions,” Welch said on Ask the CIO. “We had some experimentation with that earlier in the year at Project Convergence, Capstone Four, what we hadn’t done yet is put it over what I’ll call a representative network, the type of processing, compute network solutions, radio solutions, the way that we manage those bits and bytes on the battlefield. We really hadn’t kind of coupled those things together yet. We did that at NetModX, and it just drove home the challenges that we saw there.”

The Army Futures Command took those lessons and updated characteristics of need that incorporates the need for a more cohesive technology stack that stretches from the data to the applications to the transport.

Welch said the characteristics of need included a new section to signal the importance of not piecemealing the NGC2 solution together.

Army TEM 14 is coming

When it comes to the NGC2 technology stack, Welch said the application layer has to be focused on the user’s needs.

“One thing that modern applications have in common most of the time is that you don’t really need a whole lot of training in order to get started on it. When you download an app onto your phone, generally, you’re able to start using it even if you haven’t done it before because that’s a very highly specialized skill set in order to make something intuitive right to understand. That has been in the characteristic of need from the first one that we did back in May, the level of intuitiveness,” he said. “If we can get that piece right, then all the other layers below it that help support that.”

With a goal of implementing the initial capabilities of NGC2 by 2026, Welch said much of the next year will focus on piloting and prototyping technologies and processes with a host of vendors.

The Army is hosting Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM) 14 in Grapevine, Texas where it will meet with vendors about the acquisition strategy, the technology roadmap and technology discriminators. The Army released a request for information to help decide which vendors to meet with. Responses are due by March 19.

Welch said the pilots and prototypes are focused both on technology as well as how the Army works with teams of vendors in that space.

“What we’re about to move into with the acquisition team is what they’re what they’re talking about as a prototype. We’re going to be building that to a bit of a larger scale, working with contract processes that are that are that are built to handle that larger scale, keeping our options open to learn from that and iterate,” he said. “We’re trying to move very quickly, but we are also keeping our decision space open, especially in this very important area of how we’re going to continue to contract for this activity, so that we can incorporate the lessons that we have learned when we get to kind of the initial, larger scale capability in 2026 before we start really expanding that out to much more of the Army.”

The post How the Futures Command is helping Army to envision NGC2 first appeared on Federal News Network.

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Black Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle

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23 hours ago

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September 24, 2025

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Screencap of YouTube video.

A Black Lives Matter activist in Boston named Monica Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to federal charges this week, admitting that she scammed donors and used their money to fund her own lavish lifestyle.

Cannon-Grant was previously held up as an admired figure. The city of Boston named her the Bostonian of the year at one point for her ‘social justice activism’ and she was even recognized by the Boston Celtics basketball team for her efforts.

She is now facing a minimum of two years in prison.

The New York Post reports:

BLM-linked activist admits conning donors to fund her lavish lifestyle

A once-celebrated Boston social activist has pleaded guilty to defrauding donors — including Black Lives Matter — out of thousands of dollars that she used as a personal piggy bank.

Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, pleaded guilty Monday to 18 counts of fraud-related crimes that she committed with her late husband while operating their Violence in Boston (VIB) activists group, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.

The activist scammed money — including $3,000 from a BLM group — while claiming it was to help feed children and run protests like one in 2020 over the murder of George Floyd and police violence.

Cannon-Grant also conned her way into getting $100,000 in federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits — which she used to pay off her personal auto loan and car insurance policy.

But she has now confessed to transferring funds to personal bank accounts to pay for rent, shopping sprees, delivery meals, visits to a nail salon — and even a summer vacation to Maryland.

Just amazing.

Here’s a local video report:

She should pay back every penny.

The post Black Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Keith Olbermann Backpedals Furiously With Apology for Threatening CNN’s Scott Jennings – Jennings Responds (VIDEO)

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23 hours ago

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September 24, 2025

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As the Gateway Pundit reported yesterday, former MSNBC host and generally unhinged leftist Keith Olbermann, appeared to threaten CNN’s conservative pundit Scott Jennings on Twitter saying, ‘You’re next motherf**ker.’

Well, Olbermann may have gotten a phone call or a visit from the FBI because today he walked back those comments with a full-throated apology.

RedState has an update:

To quickly recap, Scott Jennings, a Salem Media Network radio host and conservative CNN political commentator, reacted to breaking news on Monday that Kimmel had been reinstated by tweeting, “So basically his employer suspended him for being an insensitive pr**k, and we don’t live in an authoritarian regime? Got it.”

This enraged Olbermann, who proceeded to tweet what many, including Jennings, perceived to be a threat. “You’re next, motherf**ker. But keep mugging to the camera.” Jennings tagged Patel and included a screengrab of the tweets in response.

Though the FBI hasn’t commented as to whether an investigation was launched, Olbermann ostensibly appears to have thought twice about what he tweeted and deleted, apologizing profusely in tweets posted on Tuesday and claiming what he wrote was “misinterpreted”:

See Olbermann’s tweet below:

Scott Jennings, always a class act, offered this hilarious response:

Keith Olbermann really needs help. The guy is just so out of control.

The post Keith Olbermann Backpedals Furiously With Apology for Threatening CNN’s Scott Jennings – Jennings Responds (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Where is Lance Twiggs? Kirk Assassin’s Transgender Lover Has Vanished

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23 hours ago

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September 24, 2025

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Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson and roommate Lance Twiggs

Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson lived with his transgender partner – a male-to-female trans named Lance “Luna” Twiggs.

The FBI used Robinson’s texts with his transgender partner to solidify that Robinson was the assassin. Lance Twiggs has not been charged with any crime; however, federal authorities are still investigating.

Last week, Utah authorities released the text exchange between Tyler Robinson and his transgender lover, Lance Twiggs, sent shortly after Kirk’s assassination.

Utah County District Attorney Jeff Gray announced seven charges against Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson. They will also be seeking the death penalty.

Robinson was charged with:

– Count 1: Aggravated murder (capital offense)
– Count 2: Felony reckless discharge of a firearm causing bodily injury
– Count 3: Felony obstruction of justice for hiding the firearm
– Count 4: Felony obstruction of justice for discarding the clothing he wore during the shooting
– Count 5: Witness tampering for asking roommate to delete incriminating messages
– Count 6: Witness temperating for demanding trans roommate stay silent, and not speak to police
– Count 7: Commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child

Jeff Gray released the chilling texts between Tyler Robinson and his “love” Lance Twiggs.

Read the text exchange here:

Tyler Robinson texts with transgender lover Lance Twiggs / 1
Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson texts with transgender lover Lance Twiggs / 2

Lance Twiggs was reportedly cooperating with the FBI, however, according to the Daily Mail he has seemingly vanished.

“If [Lance Twiggs] ever comes back, it will be in a body bag,” a neighbor said to the Daily Mail. “That’s not a threat – I’m just saying that there are so many people who want a piece of him he’d be mad to show his face in public again. This was a generational event.”

The Daily Mail reported:

The Trans boyfriend of Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin has fled their former lovenest – and locals tell the Daily Mail they never want to see him again.

Lance Twiggs, 22, was led away for questioning when police swooped on the smart three-bed condo he shared with accused gunman Tyler Robinson, 22.

Shaken neighbors say the part time plumber has not been back to the $320,000 property in St. George, Utah – one declaring: ‘Good riddance. I never want to see either of them again.’

His beaten-up Infinity compact is still parked in his space with his work gear tossed across the back seat and a sandwich wrapper and a drink on the front passenger seat.

Upstairs lights have been left on for more than a week and notes and Amazon packages are piling up outside the home owned by Twiggs’s devout Mormon family.

The post Where is Lance Twiggs? Kirk Assassin’s Transgender Lover Has Vanished appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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