Instant Connect Enterprise (ICE) is part of $99.6M U.S. Army award to Team Anduril for Next Generation Command & Control

ICE is helping pioneer a new era of tactical communications and decision-making for the US Army

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, July 25, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The information age is transforming the battlefield. Soldiers must be equipped to go into battle with connectivity from the tactical edge to base command. The U.S. Army’s Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) initiative is meeting the challenge. NGC2 is designed to modernize communications technologies, equip warfighters with resilient edge connectivity, and provide commanders with the information they need to make the best possible decisions when every second counts.

Instant Connect is proud to announce that the U.S. Army has awarded Anduril and its team of industry partners – including Instant Connect Enterprise™ (ICE) – an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement for the Army’s NGC2 initiative.

The contract, for $99.6 million over 11 months, instructs Team Anduril to provide the first division-scale prototype of the NGC2 system to the 4th Infantry Division. The partners include ICE, Palantir, Striveworks, Govini, Research Innovations, and Microsoft.

ICE is proud and excited to be a part of a strategic initiative that is poised to revolutionize information-sharing and decision-making on the front lines.

NGC2 is the Army’s future “digital brain” for the battlefield—a unified communications and decision-making ecosystem that connects soldiers, command, intel, logistics, and strike systems for decisive combat advantage. NGC2’s mission to help commanders make better and faster decisions than the enemy, utilizing a 4-layer technology ecosystem of transport, infrastructure, data, and applications. Team Anduril will integrate these technologies into a singular architecture so that soldiers can simultaneously access various kinds of communications, compute, and information processing capabilities. Time-sensitive decisions will be faster, and soldiers will be better connected and communicating across Corps to Company. Shared insights might include enemy locations, logistics and sustainment information, terrain mapping, tactical control measures, and weapons statuses.

The new contract follows Team Anduril’s participation in the Army’s early NGC2 experimentation during Project Convergence and other events, building upon the Army’s momentum to design and deploy a prototype architecture.

Tactical communications at the edge:

Instant Connect Enterprise™ (ICE) is an important component in the NGC2 initiative, providing an interoperable IP-based tactical communications platform that is flexible, secure, and responsive to fluid environments. The ICE push-to-talk platform securely connects everyone over IP – from warfighters at the edge to commanders at base operations – regardless of device or network.

In addition to tactical comms interoperability, ICE offers a range of next-gen features including real-time translation supporting 70+ languages, automated operations logging, and a voice plug-in for the ATAK app. The platform can be deployed in both server-based and serverless modes for maximum connectivity in disconnected missions where servers are either inconvenient or unavailable.

“ICE provides units with communications that are uninterrupted and agile from the tactical edge back to base command, and that can be the difference in winning the mission,” said Forrest Claypool, Instant Connect CEO. “We look forward to working with Team Anduril to help turn NGC2 into a decisive advantage for the U.S. military. This is the future of command and control.”

For more information about the NGC2 award, visit:

US Army - https://www.army.mil/article/287180

Anduril - https://www.anduril.com/article/anduril-awarded-usd99-6m-for-u-s-army-next-generation-command-and-control-prototype/

About Instant Connect Enterprise™ (ICE):

Instant Connect Enterprise™ (ICE) is the world’s leading interoperable tactical communications platform for military, government, and industry. ICE is fully interoperable, providing IP-based push-to-talk voice and text communications that connect IP devices, mobile devices, conventional radios, and specialized military radios across mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), legacy combat radio nets, Satellite, LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi, and other networks. Everyone communicates seamlessly and securely over IP. The platform is certified by the U.S. Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) and approved for use on the U.S. Department of Defense Information Network (DoDIN). Instant Connect Software LLC is affiliated with the Chicago-based Dillon Kane Group. Visit https://www.instantconnectnow.com/.

William Bloomstein
Dillon Kane Group
+1 617-721-9445
williamb@dillonkane.com