Ivy Mass exercise showcases scaled Lattice battlefield network

Anduril and the U.S. Army used the Ivy Mass exercise in May 2026 to test what a division-scale battlefield network looks like when it is run as an operating system, not a collection of separate radios, screens and software. Anduril said on May 20 that Ivy Mass took its Lattice-based Next-Generation Command and Control, or NGC2, setup across the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, expanding from earlier “Ivy Sting” events that linked smaller mission threads. The company described the event as the final exercise before the Army’s Project Convergence Capstone 6 this summer. Defense Daily separately reported that Anduril had detailed work to scale NGC2 across the full division at Ivy Mass. ### So what actually changed at Ivy Mass? The biggest change at Ivy Mass was scale. Anduril said the number of connected soldier devices grew from about 10 at Ivy Sting 5 to more than 2,500 at Ivy Mass, putting individual troops on the same data layer as command posts, vehicles and weapon systems. Tactical Edge Computers, the fielded compute systems that host Lattice in vehicles, command posts and unmanned platforms, increased from about 65 to more than 130, according to the company. (anduril.com) The Army had previously framed Ivy Mass as the division-level culmination of the Ivy Sting series. An Army article published in 2025 said the 4th Infantry Division had been charged with pioneering an operational NGC2 prototype ecosystem through Ivy Sting and Ivy Mass events. Defense One reported in February that the service was moving to link a full division with its next-generation command-and-control prototype. (anduril.com) ### Why does Lattice sit at the center of this demo? Lattice is Anduril’s command-and-control software and networking layer. On the company’s product pages, Anduril says Lattice for Command & Control integrates thousands of sensors and effectors to accelerate kill chains, while Lattice Mesh is a decentralized mesh networking capability designed to distribute data across services, domains and platforms in degraded, low-bandwidth environments. (army.mil) At Ivy Mass, that meant using Lattice as the common layer connecting soldier devices, tactical compute nodes and third-party systems. Anduril said soldiers took over tasks that company teams had led in earlier exercises, including provisioning nodes, updating software and integrating new systems onto the mesh. That detail matters because it shifts the event from a vendor-run demonstration toward soldier operation of the network in the field. (anduril.com) ### Was this just a software demo, or did it cover sensing-to-effects workflows? The Ivy series had already been built around operational mission threads rather than a single app demo. In an October 2025 write-up, Anduril said Ivy Sting 1 ran a division-level targeting process on Lattice Mesh and Palantir’s Target Workbench from headquarters to the gun line. In a November 2025 account of Ivy Sting 2, Anduril said Ghost-X aircraft, Striveworks software and other tools were used for AI-enabled sensing, target recognition and battle damage assessment inside the NGC2 environment. (anduril.com) By April 2026, Anduril said Ivy Sting 4 had expanded to more than 50 use cases, including joint integration between Army and Marine Corps systems. That progression helps explain why investor-focused coverage, including TipRanks, described Ivy Mass as a demonstration of interoperability and Anduril’s role as an integrating layer across heterogeneous sensors and effectors. (anduril.com) ### Why are Army and industry focused on “network integration” now? The Army’s NGC2 effort is aimed at replacing disconnected command-and-control systems with an open, modular architecture that shares data in real time, even under degraded conditions, according to Anduril’s July 2025 contract announcement. The company said at the time that Lattice would connect digital assets, remote sensors, command posts and soldiers with real-time intelligence and systems. (anduril.com) Recent Army work with Anduril also shows the network itself becoming a procurement target. Anduril said in November that the Army selected it for the Integrated Battle Command System Maneuver program, establishing Lattice as a fire-control platform for counter-drone missions. LMI said on May 14 that it had launched a Rapid Development Pilot with Anduril to build applications for the Army’s NGC2 environment. (anduril.com) ### What comes next after Ivy Mass? Project Convergence Capstone 6 is the next named milestone. Anduril said Ivy Mass was the final event before PCC6 this summer, where the Army is expected to continue testing the NGC2 environment with the 4th Infantry Division and industry partners. The company’s newsroom listed the Ivy Mass account on May 20, 2026, as one of its latest updates on the program. (anduril.com 1) (anduril.com 2)