Lockheed Martin tested its Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) prototype during Exercise Balikatan 2026 as US and Philippines forces evaluated advanced digital command systems designed to accelerate battlefield decision-making across distributed Indo-Pacific operations. The NGC2 prototype integrated sensor feeds, fires coordination, and airspace management into a unified operational picture, enabling commanders to maintain situational awareness across widely separated operational nodes. The exercise focused on determining whether a shared digital environment could shorten the detect-to-engage cycle while supporting synchronized operations across air, land, and fire support elements. The system was operated simultaneously across nodes in Hawaii, the continental United States, and the Philippines, demonstrating its ability to support geographically dispersed command structures. One of the most significant demonstrations occurred during a counter-landing live-fire scenario, where the platform connected sensors directly to firing systems in near real time. AH-64 Apache helicopters, artillery units, mortars, and HIMARS rocket systems were coordinated through the NGC2 architecture, which also generated battle damage assessments and operational performance data during engagements. Rather than relying on a centralized command hub, the architecture functioned as a distributed data layer linking forward-edge nodes in the Philippines with command centers in Hawaii and the US mainland. The system also tested advanced airspace management capabilities by combining radar and tracking feeds from multiple sources into a single display, allowing real-time deconfliction during simultaneous fire missions. Interoperability with allied forces was another key feature, as the platform enabled data sharing across different classification levels to maintain a common operational picture between US and Philippine forces throughout the exercise. The NGC2 demonstration was conducted alongside “Lightning Surge 3,” the latest phase of an ongoing experimentation campaign aimed at refining operational capabilities through direct field feedback. Development partners supporting the program include Amazon Web Services, Raft, Lyntris, and Rune, all contributing cloud computing, distributed networking, and data-processing technologies. Exercise Balikatan remains one of the largest annual US-Philippines military exercises, spanning air, land, sea, cyber, and space operations while increasingly serving as a testbed for next-generation command-and-control concepts in the Indo-Pacific theater.
