The U.S. Army said a communications test known as COMMEX 1B was a success, replicating and informing the scale and scenarios of Project Convergence in far-flung laboratory and field settings.
The Army and several international partners made headway to achieve battlefield interoperability at EDGE 22 at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, but there is still plenty of work to be done to seamlessly tie allies and partners together in operations.
“We’re never going to fight as just a joint organization,” Army Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey, the director of the Network Cross-Functional Team, said this week. “We’re going to always have our coalition partners.”
“Our battle space is all connected,” said David Rohall with Lockheed Martin. “No longer just does a soldier talk to the soldier next to him, but the soldier is talking to the airmen who may be flying above.”
Four years into Army Futures Command, experts say the effort is on track, but they warn that leadership changes, potential budget cuts and a few contracting and technological hiccups could put it at risk.
“This is the first time that we’ve had airborne capability like this. The big piece of it is just giving it visibility for senior leaders,” an electronic warfare official says.
F-35B jets rip across the sky, a new demonstrator aircraft collects intel and performs reconnaissance, and drones are shot from the back of an all-terrain vehicle as a highly classified loitering munition blows up targets. Welcome to Edge 21.
Edge 21 is the first exercise of its kind, building off of previous demonstrations at China Lake and Project Convergence 2020 to refine the Army aviation ecosystem to effectively operation in the Indo-Pacific theater.
COVID-19 is defining the “new normal” for everyday life, as the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense modernization efforts are defining the “new normal for joint operations.”
In addition to the annual Project Convergence demonstrations, Brigadier General Ross Coffman wants a joint laboratory where the services can work together on connecting their systems.