Inside Project Convergence 2026: The Army Tests Tomorrow’s Battlefield

For ten days in July 2026, the desert surrounding Fort Irwin, California, became a testing ground for what the U.S. Army believes future warfare may look like.

Project Convergence Capstone 6 brought together more than 9,700 participants from the U.S. military, allied nations, government organizations, and the defense industry. From July 20 through July 29, soldiers tested roughly 100 developing capabilities under demanding field conditions at the National Training Center.

The equipment included unmanned aircraft, experimental communications networks, electronic warfare systems, satellite connections, artificial intelligence applications, and technology intended to help commanders understand a battlefield faster than their opponents.

Despite the futuristic hardware, the central question behind the exercise was relatively simple:

Can soldiers collect information, share it, understand it, and act on it faster than the enemy?

What Is Project Convergence?

Cpt. Jeremy Truong operates an Android Team Awareness Kit. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Dane Howard)

Project Convergence began in 2020 as an Army experimentation campaign focused on connecting sensors, command networks, weapons, vehicles, and soldiers.

The first events were comparatively limited demonstrations. As the program expanded, it began incorporating the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Space Force, and military partners from other countries. The Army now describes Project Convergence as its premier annual experimentation event for evaluating emerging technology before it is widely issued to operational units.

Capstone 6 was the largest Project Convergence experiment conducted so far. Instead of testing every system under tightly controlled conditions, organizers allowed more operational freedom during the exercise. Soldiers had to use developing equipment while maneuvering through Fort Irwin’s rough terrain, extreme heat, simulated enemy activity, and communications challenges.

That distinction is important. A system that works perfectly during a manufacturer’s demonstration may behave very differently after days of dust, heat, vibration, weak signals, exhausted operators, and enemy interference.

Project Convergence is intended to expose those weaknesses before equipment reaches an actual battlefield.

Next Generation Command and Control

The centerpiece of Capstone 6 was the Army’s Next Generation Command and Control architecture, commonly shortened to NGC2.

NGC2 is not one radio, computer, or software program. Army officials describe it as a complete command-and-control ecosystem composed of transportation, data, and application layers.

The transportation layer moves information through radios, satellites, wireless networks, and other communications systems. The data layer organizes and distributes that information. The application layer gives soldiers and commanders the digital tools needed to view maps, track units, identify threats, and coordinate operations.

During Capstone 6, the 4th Infantry Division employed NGC2 at the division level. Information from drones, reconnaissance units, command posts, allied forces, and simulated battlefield systems was brought together to create a shared operational picture.

The Army also experimented with artificial intelligence models and commercially developed software that could help process information and present commanders with relevant data more quickly. The objective is not simply to gather more information. It is to prevent commanders from being overwhelmed by thousands of disconnected reports.

On a modern battlefield, a unit might receive information from satellites, aircraft, drones, ground sensors, electronic warfare teams, reconnaissance patrols, and allied forces at the same time. NGC2 is intended to connect those sources and make the resulting data usable.

Drones Become Standard Battlefield Equipment

Unmanned aircraft were among the most visible technologies at Capstone 6.

American and allied soldiers operated small reconnaissance drones, while Army personnel also tested weaponized unmanned aircraft and experimental payloads. One system displayed at the event was the Picatinny Common Lethality Integration Kit, a modular attachment designed to place a lethal payload onto a compatible drone.

Picatinny Common Lethality Integration Kit attached to a drone. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Craig Kong)

The exercise also involved larger air-launched systems sometimes described as “launched effects.” These aircraft can be released from helicopters or other platforms to scout ahead, detect threats, extend communications, interfere with enemy systems, or potentially deliver weapons.

Army Aviation used Capstone 6 to examine how these systems might operate in contested airspace, where traditional aircraft could face air defenses, electronic interference, and other threats.

This reflects a major lesson from recent conflicts: drones are no longer specialized equipment used only by high-level intelligence units.

Small unmanned aircraft are becoming a normal part of operations at increasingly lower levels. They can provide an individual unit with aerial observation that previously required a helicopter, airplane, or access to information collected far above the unit itself.

The challenge is no longer just obtaining a drone. Militaries must also protect drone communications, prevent friendly aircraft from interfering with one another, identify hostile drones, and move the collected information into command networks quickly enough to matter.

Electronic Warfare and the Fight Over GPS

Capstone 6 also included experimentation in the electromagnetic spectrum.

One of the more unusually named systems was Hammer of the Gods, a deployable electronic warfare emitter tested through cooperation between the Army, Navy, and Space Force.

CWO 2 George Thompson operates the Geospatial-Intelligence Workstation-Tactical, a ruggedized, mobile computer system that delivers real-time terrain analysis, route planning, and mapping data to commanders. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Kailea Stumke)

The system is designed to provide command-and-control and electronic warfare effects while maintaining a relatively low electromagnetic signature. A maritime version was also tested at sea during Capstone 6.

A major part of this experimentation involved Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, often abbreviated PNT.

GPS is the most familiar example of a PNT service, but the military’s dependence on precise positioning extends well beyond navigation. PNT information helps synchronize communications, guide unmanned systems, coordinate units, and improve the accuracy of long-range weapons.

If those signals are jammed, manipulated, or unavailable, the effects can spread across an entire force.

The Army and its partners are therefore studying both sides of the problem. They want the ability to disrupt an opponent’s access to positioning data while ensuring friendly forces can continue operating when their own signals are degraded.

This is one reason traditional navigation and field skills have not become irrelevant. Advanced systems can provide enormous advantages, but soldiers must still be prepared for communications outages, damaged equipment, depleted batteries, and unreliable digital information.

Testing Technology Against a Simulated Enemy

Not every part of Capstone 6 took place physically in the desert.

A team of more than 100 simulation personnel created additional friendly and enemy forces that could not practically be placed on the ground. These computer-generated units produced battlefield reports and network traffic, forcing the experimental command system to process information at a much larger scale.

Sgt. Jonathon L. Collins experiments with an electromagnetic warfare device. (U.S. Army photo By Sgt. John J. Capunay)

The simulated forces were combined with live troops, human-operated simulators, and the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which routinely portrays the opposing force at the National Training Center.

This allowed the Army to test NGC2 against the type of information overload that could occur during a large conflict.

It is relatively easy for a command network to track a handful of units during a demonstration. It is much more difficult when thousands of friendly, allied, enemy, and simulated entities are transmitting information simultaneously.

Army assessors collected both technical data and feedback from soldiers throughout the event. That information can be used to determine which technologies should continue development, which require changes, and which may not be ready for further investment.

Fighting Alongside Allied Forces

Modern U.S. military planning assumes that a major conflict would likely involve allies.

Capstone 6 included forces from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. For the first time during a Project Convergence event, allied units participated together in a live multinational maneuver brigade.

Elements from the four allied armies operated alongside a battalion from the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

This was about more than proving that allied radios could communicate.

Different countries may use different mapping systems, software, encryption methods, terminology, weapons, and procedures. Even when individual technologies work properly, those differences can prevent information from moving between units.

Capstone 6 gave the participating militaries an opportunity to identify those problems under field conditions rather than discovering them during a real operation.

The Soldier Is Still Carrying the System

Much of the attention surrounding Project Convergence focuses on drones, artificial intelligence, robotics, and satellite networks. However, every digital system eventually reaches a soldier operating physical equipment in the field.

Army Soldier utilizes the L-Band Tactical Satellite. (U.S. Army Photo by Pfc. Antony Hernandez Diaz)

Radios still require antennas, batteries, cables, pouches, and trained operators. Drones must be carried, launched, repaired, and recovered. Command posts need shelter and electrical power. Data networks still depend on vehicles, generators, satellite terminals, and personnel capable of keeping them operational.

Even soldiers testing advanced systems at Fort Irwin were still wearing recognizable OCP uniforms, body armor, helmets, boots, hydration equipment, and load-bearing gear.

That mixture of old and new has defined military development for generations. A new rifle does not immediately eliminate every older rifle. A new camouflage pattern does not instantly replace every previous uniform. New equipment often appears gradually, alongside established systems that may remain in warehouses and operational units for years.

Some of the equipment tested during Capstone 6 may eventually become standard Army issue. Other systems may be redesigned, combined with competing technology, or abandoned entirely.

That is the purpose of an event like Project Convergence. It is not a public display of finished equipment. It is a large-scale attempt to determine what actually works when soldiers use it under pressure.

A Preview, Not a Final Answer

Staff Sgt. Willie Misch equips the Soldier Borne Mission Command, a next-generation mission command platform for dismounted infantry units. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Antony Hernandez Diaz)

Project Convergence Capstone 6 offered a glimpse at the direction of U.S. Army modernization.

Future formations will likely use more unmanned systems, rely more heavily on shared data, operate alongside artificial intelligence applications, and face constant pressure in the electromagnetic spectrum. Commanders will be expected to make decisions faster while receiving information from more sources than ever before.

Yet the exercise also demonstrated why technology must be tested outside the laboratory.

The future battlefield will not be clean, predictable, or perfectly connected. Networks will fail. Signals will be jammed. Equipment will break. Soldiers will misunderstand interfaces, modify procedures, and find uses that designers never anticipated.

The most important result of Project Convergence may therefore be more than any single drone or computer system.

It is the opportunity to place developing technology in the hands of soldiers and discover whether it actually helps them fight.