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1 1 (September 28, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdcac0001 and id is 1 raw text is: The Army's Project Convergence - mmm, go mppm qq\ , q I aS 11LULANJILiN, September 28, 2020 Project Convergence is what the Army calls a campaign of learning, designed to further integrate the Army into the Joint Force. It is how the Army plans to be a part of Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2), the Department of Defense's (DOD's) plan to connect sensors from all the military services Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force as well as Special Operations Forces (SOF), into a single network which, theoretically, could be more effective and less costly. Designed around five core elements soldiers, weapons systems, command and control, information, and terrain Army Futures Command (AFC) plans to run Project Convergence on an annual cycle; achieving objectives from frequent experiments with technology, equipment, and soldier feedback throughout the year and culminating in an annual exercise or demonstration. In basic terms, the Army reportedly wants to take the service's big ideas for future warfare and test them in the real world. The Army wants to figure out what works and what needs fixing and figure that out as early on as possible, when it's much cheaper to make changes. Taking place at Yuma Proving Ground, AZ between August 11 and September 1, 2020 and involving about 500 personnel, Project Convergence 2020 (PC20) was intended to provide experience to support decisions to: * change how the Army fights by shaping how it organizes for combat; * highlight opportunities to optimize operational processes; * evolve how the Army visualizes, describes, decides, and acts on enemy threats; and * build soldier and leader trust in emergent technologies. PC20 concentrated on what the Army calls the close fight by integrating new enabling technologies at the lowest operational level so that tactical networks could facilitate faster decisions. At the unit level, PC20 focused on Brigade Combat Teams (BCT), Combat Aviation Brigades (CAB), and Expeditionary Signal Battalion-Enhanced (ESB-E). At the system level, PC20 involved the Army's MQ IC Grey Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the Air Launched Effects (ALE) a multi-purpose helicopter- launched system and the tactical network. The tactical network are those command, control, communications, intelligence, and computer systems used by the Army in combat. Figure I. Representative Exercise Operational Scenario I . ... . ... .. ... .. .. . .. ... .. ... .. ... . Source: From Army Briefing provided to CRS dated September 10, 2020 One of the experiments at PC20 reportedly included using low-earth orbit satellites and Grey Eagle UAVs to perform sensing for air targets and simultaneously on the ground to detect a target. Data from the two systems was passed back to an organization at Joint Base Lewis McChord, WA, where the target was processed. The data was then passed back to Yuma Proving Ground to a system to engage the target-either a self-propelled artillery system such as the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) system currently under development, a Grey Eagle, or another ground platform. This entire experiment was supposedly accomplished within 20 seconds. C ove , c e Z l )2 a 2 0,2 2 P C2 ad While the Army intends Project Convergence to be a campaign of learning and an annual event, currently, the Army has made planning information publicly available only for 2021 and 2022. According to the Army, in 2021 they plan to transition from an Army-exclusive operation and integrate with other Services and unspecified government agencies. The Army is said to have commitments from the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and the Intelligence Community to participate. The Army plans for about 1,000 personnel from the Joint Force to participate in PC21. The Army's focus on systems for PC21 is to make decisions faster at echelons, moving from the BCT to the Division and Multi- Domain Task Force (MDTF) level. PC21 also plans to integrate aspects of DOD's draft Joint Warfighting Concept, which is expected to be published in December 2020. Draft objectives for PC21 include demonstrating:

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