Lt Col Jonathan Dalley

To stay competitive and effective, HQ ARRC must continuously innovate and adapt, ensuring it remains prepared for the challenges of an evolving operating environment. By learning from contemporary conflicts and improving people, processes, and equipment, a dedicated team within the Headquarters works to ensure that ARRC staff are better equipped and supported. This focus on innovation not only strengthens operational success but also provides reassurance to families that their loved ones are operating with the most advanced tools and strategies available, prioritising their safety and mission success.

1. CENTURION WATCH: This is HQ ARRC’ s main innovation project, aimed at improving how the team communicates, makes decisions, and works together. By focusing on adaptability, integration, resilience, and safety, it helps ARRC make faster, smarter decisions, ensuring they can carry out their missions more effectively.

2. ASGARD and RAPSTONE: These UK Army programmes aim to quickly provide soldiers with the tools and technology they need to succeed. This year, ASGARD is focused on improving how tactical headquarters, including ARRC, understand situations and make decisions. The goal is to help commanders act faster and with better information.

3. Task Force X: This NATO programme brings together new technologies and ideas from across the alliance. It tests and demonstrates innovative solutions to modern challenges, helping NATO countries share knowledge and work more effectively together.

In addition to this, the ARRC innovation team regularly meets with industry suppliers to understand their products and inform them as to how the ARRC is evolving with the changing nature of war and lessons learnt from contemporary conflicts.

A summary of some recent innovation activity:

Tactical Command Post Concept Demonstration: Alongside an Industry partner and 22 Signal Regiment, the innovation team has delivered a concept demonstrator to Exercise AVENGER TRIAD, this year’ s capstone exercise, to provide secure and assured access to command and situational awareness tools for the Commander and his immediate staff on the move. This successfully demonstrated the art of the possible and has set the scene for the development of a permanent solution for the HQ over the next year.

Sub-Terranean Communications: With support from an industry partner, 22 Signal Regiment successfully trialled the implementation and integration of specialist radio equipment drawn from the mining sector. This enabled us to better understand how this equipment could be implemented to connect a subterranean command post and what advantages it could offer.

Multi-Domain Data Analytics: With support from the Army HQ Enhanced Command and Control Spearhead team, ARRC G2 were able to successfully deploy the“ Multi- Domain Data Analytics for an Area of Intelligence Interest”( MDDAAII, aka Mad-Eye) capability to Exercise AVENGER TRIAD 25. Its success

throughout the exercise showcased the opportunities that automation can provide in delivering a Common Operations Picture and Common Intelligence Picture, as well as how collaboration with multiple industry partners is critical to deliver fusion of data across multiple, disparate data sources.

Exercise AVENGER TRIAD Industry Day:

On 23 October, the ARRC hosted representatives from nearly 50 different industry suppliers from across the defence sector to explore how we fight as NATO’ s Strategic Reserve Corps( SRC). Through the lens of ASGARD Decide, we delved into critical topics such as Command and Control( C2), digital fires, a Common Operating Picture( COP – How we understand ourselves), a Common Intelligence Picture( CIP – How we understand the adversary), and Command Post( CP) survivability. Our aim was to articulate our operational challenges and foster a shared understanding of the problem set. We believe the solutions to these challenges will not come from a single vendor but through the integration of multiple products. Collaboration is key, and this event served as a platform for focussed networking and to drive innovation. The day was supported by NATO Task Force X, the Army Chief Technology Officer and ARRC’ s subordinate UK formations.