Battlefield Operating System for Infantry
Scott Sanders, Chief Growth Officer at Forterra, on autonomy for every vehicle
The real gap is not lighter gear, it is that infantry still lacks a clean, always available digital layer that ties people, vehicles, sensors, and robots into one usable picture. The Army is still bridging older systems like JBC-P into newer software such as MMC-S and TAK while NGC2 is still a prototype effort. That means frontline users often get incremental hardware upgrades before they get a fundamentally better workflow for seeing teammates, sharing targets, and directing unmanned systems.
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The Army itself describes C2 Fix as a bridge and NGC2 as the longer term rebuild. At brigade and below, MMC-S and TAK are currently the leading tools for the tactical common operating picture, which shows the stack is still being stitched together rather than replaced end to end.
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IVAS shows what a real user experience upgrade looks like in practice. It moves maps, routes, and control measures into a soldier's field of view, and the program has emphasized reliability, comfort, and tighter integration. That is a bigger shift than simply issuing a newer radio or lighter device.
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Forterra is aiming at the layer underneath the screen. Its argument is that autonomy only matters if dismounted troops can task systems, track positions, and keep operating when networks are degraded. That is also why the company emphasizes distributed compute on vehicles instead of a single central brain.
The next phase is a move from better gadgets to a battlefield operating system. As NGC2, TAK, IVAS, and vehicle based autonomy start to connect into one data layer, the winners will be companies that make a rifle battalion faster to sense, decide, and move with the same headcount, not companies that merely ship another piece of kit.