Project Convergence ‘critical proving ground’ for emerging military capabilities

FORUM Staff

Allied and Partner forces converged in the unforgiving terrain of the American West recently to test drones, robotic vehicles, and next-generation command and control (NGC2) as part of the United States Army’s “premier modernization experiment.”

Project Convergence Capstone 5 (PC-C5), which runs from March through April 2025 at the U.S. Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, and multiple locations within the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s area of responsibility, includes more than 6,000 personnel from Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the U.S. The event is “a critical proving ground for emerging technologies and concepts crucial to enabling a data-centric and networked fighting force,” according to the U.S. Army Futures and Concepts Center.

“What Project Convergence does is bring every single war-fighting system we have together in one place,” U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Zachary Miller, commander of the Joint Modernization Command, said in a news release. “We’re layering new technology, new capabilities, with a new way to organize and seeing if that helps us achieve the war-fighting aims.”

Australian Defence Force personnel are testing concepts such as hyper-teaming.

“We’re getting one Soldier to do something that previously took many Soldiers,” Maj. Ben Peterson of the Australian Army’s experimental unit, 1st Armoured Regiment, said in a news release. “For example, a single controller using multiple uncrewed ground and aerial systems at once. As far as I know, this hasn’t been done by our Army before.”

Multinational teams also are evaluating how artificial intelligence and data analytics enable real-time situational awareness to speed decision-making.

“It’s an opportunity to share with our key Allies and Partners on Project Convergence the kind of capabilities we’re employing and showing how we would employ them,” said Col. Toby Till, head of the British Army’s Experimentation and Trials Group. “Allies have always fought together, and we’ve got to be able to share data. You need to be able to pass that data and get those fire missions and targeting effects across.”

As part of assessing NGC2 capabilities, experimental technologies in areas such as data infrastructure and communications were integrated onto tactical vehicles to enhance network mobility and survivability.

“PC-C5 is more than just an experiment; it’s a critical component of the continuous transformation within the U.S. Army,” the Futures and Concepts Center stated. “The insights from this event will directly inform future readiness and modernization efforts, ensuring that the Joint Force remains at the forefront of military innovation.”