AUSA 2022: US Army explores joint, coalition applications for data fabric concept

US Army First Lieutenant Ethan Nelson from 1st Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, pulls security alongside North Macedonia soldiers during Exercise ‘Saber Junction' in Hohenfels, Germany. (US Army National Guard)

US Army officials working to develop the service's tactical data mesh concept are increasingly exploring capabilities to further integrate joint and coalition forces, to increase interoperability in current and future conflicts.

Programme officials with the army's Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T) Directorate are partnered with Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER) on continuing research and development work on the tactical data fabric concept, US Army Colonel Matthew Paul, project manager for mission command at PEO C3T, said.

“We are working with [them] on basically expanding that capability, making it more robust” to support the service Command Post Computing Environment (CPCE) concept, Col Paul said during a briefing ahead of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 2022 conference to be held in Washington, DC, from 10 to 12 October.

The CPCE is a single-mission command software suite designed to provide a common operational picture to ground commanders at the tactical level and above, according to an army fact sheet. The CPCE is capable of hosting “a comprehensive suite of software applications and services upon which warfighting functions can be converged and future applications can be built”, the fact sheet said.

The directorate's development work on a tactical data fabric is embedded within the CPCE concept, Col Paul said.