The United States Army’s outdated command and control (C2) infrastructure limits its operational efficiency, particularly in critical combat scenarios. The agency’s “C2 Fix” initiative aims to address these issues by simplifying network infrastructure across Army formations. With over 85% of the Army’s units still relying on less agile legacy systems, the current C2 framework lacks the flexibility to support rapid, secure, and scalable communications between intelligence, sustainment, and tactical operations.
When near-peer adversaries advance their military capabilities, any delay in decision-making or system failures in the field could be catastrophic. Recent U.S. Army exercises, like Operation Lethal Eagle, have revealed that reliance on legacy infrastructure creates significant operational risks, including communication delays, system failures, and reduced situational awareness across units. As combat becomes increasingly information-driven, these challenges could compromise mission success, leaving soldiers vulnerable and unable to respond quickly to real-time threats.
The cost of not addressing these issues is too high. Commanders need integrated, resilient systems that provide immediate access to data and improve coordination across all operational levels.
Rancher Government Solutions (RGS) steps in with government-grade technology tailored for the U.S. Army’s urgent needs under the C2Fix initiative. By using open-source technology and Kubernetes-based architectures, RGS simplifies, strengthens, and improves the Army’s C2 capabilities.
Soldiers at the tactical edge are often equipped with a mix of incompatible systems, creating logistical and operational nightmares for Signal Corps technicians, who must manage this complexity under combat conditions. The current system lacks the agility and speed needed to operate in contested environments. This also creates massive physical logistics requirements and demands for size, weight, and power (SWaP). Every soldier knows that larger systems are harder to transport.
Latency can be lethal in combat.
When data is delayed or systems fail, soldiers lose valuable time, making them vulnerable to evolving threats. Traditional systems can’t handle the increasing amount of data or the need for real-time processing at the edge, leaving frontline soldiers disconnected from crucial information.
Harvester Government, the first-of-its-kind Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) platform, delivers computing power to the tactical edge and gives soldiers the tools they need when need it. Harvester Government simplifies the orchestration of virtual machines and containerized applications, providing the Army with the flexibility and security required.
These unique attributes position Harvester Government as a flexible, powerful, and cost-effective HCI solution that bridges the gap between traditional virtualization and modern, cloud-native architectures. This is critical for C2Fix as it allows interoperability of existing products, while integrating new solutions across formations to enhance the soldiers’ abilities, resulting in:
One of the Army’s greatest challenges is ensuring its diverse, often siloed system can communicate effectively. The lack of interoperability between different platforms creates bottlenecks in data flow and slows operational efficiency.
The inability to connect systems in a combat scenario can result in delayed decisions, missed opportunities, and an incomplete operational picture. When soldiers and commanders can’t access the same data in real-time, they lose the advantage, risking mission failure and endangering lives.
Rancher Multi-Cluster Manager (Rancher MCM) addresses this by providing centralized control of diverse computing environments, whether on-premise, in the cloud, or at the tactical edge. With Rancher MCM, commanders can natively provision and orchestrate Kubernetes clusters across Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Certified Distributions, including EKS, AKS, GKE,OCP, RKE2, K3s, and Upstream Kubernetes, ensuring consistent real-time access to critical information.
These features make Rancher MCM a key element of the Army’s efforts to improve interoperability and streamline operations across tactical and strategic environments.
This capability is not in an R&D effort. It is a proven solution in use by international corporations, public sector departments, and across the military and Intelligence Community. Rancher Government Solutions provides the only solutions that allow for the integration of heterogeneous hardware and software architectures with a common platform that is secure by design. The RGS product suite delivers DISA STIG and FIPS certifications through Rancher Government Carbide, ensuring the Army’s systems are protected against cyber threats regardless of environment or operating system. In turn, the Army gets a secure, future-proof solution that reduces lock-in and dependencies for the users, enhancing resiliency in C2 systems and accelerating the path to modernization.
The Future of Military Technology Is Here
We're entering a new age of military command and control. The team-up between innovative solutions like those from Rancher Government Solutions and forward-thinking projects like C2Fix is creating a path to a more secure, productive, and capable fighting force.
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