Army plans new software to coordinate theater-level fires

The Army is seeking white papers from the defense industry about possible capabilities for the Joint Targeting Command and Computing System, which will coordinate joint and coalition fires from the battalion through theater levels, according to a July 19 notice.

JTC2S will replace the Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System, the notice states. The Army identified JADOCS earlier this year as one of 28 key technologies that will enable the service's priority modernization programs.

"It will also have capability to process a high volume of fires in a contested Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) environment, similar to how United States Forces Korea (USFK) support Republic of Korea (ROK) forces in the counter-fire fight today," the notice states.

The Army wants companies to describe how their JTC2S solutions would work with the Command Post Computing Environment, such as whether it would be directly integrated or operate as an external application, according to the notice.

JTC2S will need to be able to ingest data about the locations and status of friendly and enemy forces from a variety of sources, and display the data for commanders, the notice states. It should also be able to conduct predictive analysis and battle damage assessments as well as integrate weather forecasts into its predictions of battlefield events.

This will be a software-only system, according to responses to industry questions the Army posted Aug. 11. Vendors are expected to describe the system requirements for their programs.

Incremental capability upgrades will be expected every two years once the program is developed, according to a response to an industry question.