Pentagon budget 2027: US Army requests over USD3 billion for NGC2, C2NOW

Soldiers assigned to 4th Infantry Division conduct a live-fire exercise during Ivy Sting 4 on Fort Carson, Colorado, 30 January 2026. (US Army)

US Army budget officials requested a total of USD3.7 billion in procurement and investment funding in the fiscal year (FY) 2027 request, aiming to finance the service's top combat command-and-control (C2) and communications initiatives.

The USD3.7 billion figure will finance each element of the army's Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) initiative, as well as its Command and Control Network Optimized for Warfighting (C2NOW) programme, the service's effort replace the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical and to to revamp its overall tactical-level networked communication strategy.

The NGC2 and C2NOW funding line items were part of the army's overall USD252.8 billion FY 2027 overall request, which represented just over a 10% increase from the total FY 2026 appropriated funding levels, according to the proposal released on 21 April.

The C2NOW portion of the request is to finance the phasing out of legacy WIN-T systems, as well as associated communications hardware under the Tactical Server Infrastructure (TSI) programme, according to army budget documents. The FY 2027 funding request will also pay for integrating “NGC2 capable hardware” into army formations, to replace legacy WIN-T and TSI systems, the documents said.

However, the majority of the USD3.7 billion would go towards development, testing, and procurement of advanced technologies associated with each of the four layers, or “stacks”, of the NGC2 programme. The four layers consist of system applications, digital infrastructure, data management, and transport, the documents show.

NGC2 infrastructure and data transport layers are slated to receive the largest portion of the USD3.7 billion requested funds, pending approval from US lawmakers.