A U.S. Army contract listed at $99 million gives Shift5 a five-year vehicle for military technology work, with funding and work locations to be set through individual orders.
The Department of War (DoW) notice dated Oct. 14 identifies the award as a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for commercial offerings. It does not state how much was obligated at award. The Army received nine bids, and DoW estimates work will be completed by Sept. 30, 2031.
Shift5 said Oct. 15 that the contract supports its work on Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2), an Army modernization effort. The DoW notice does not identify NGC2. Shift5 says its involvement began in February through Anduril Industries, and that its platform was connected to Lattice. The company also said it contributed to Army demonstrations at Ivy Sting and Project Convergence.
Shift5 says its platform processes operational data from military weapon systems, presenting some information as alerts for soldiers and sending other feeds to logistics and situational-awareness applications.
In an Oct. 7 announcement, the Army put initial NGC2 application awards at about $93.6 million for a one-year period involving nine vendors. It named Anduril, Palantir, Raft and Striveworks for work on the program’s data layer and core artificial intelligence capabilities, but did not include Shift5 in that list.
The Army describes NGC2 as a modular, open-architecture ecosystem. It is intended to connect information with tools used for command and control, fires, intelligence, movement and maneuver, sustainment and protection. Joseph Welch, the Army’s portfolio acquisition executive for Command and Control (C2)/Counter C2, said core applications would help the service scale the program and maintain training continuity across the force.
The Army says I Corps is next to receive the software after division-level prototypes. It also plans to keep evaluating commercial technology through its NGC2 Commercial Solutions Opening.
