Project Convergence: America goes to 'virtual war' with China
Apr 16, 2021
Washington DC [US], April 16 : Amid the rising tensions with China, US Army's Project Convergence war games is set to hold operations in a transcontinental scenario - one meant to replicate the vast distances of the Western Pacific and the technological challenges of modern war, Asian Times reports.
Project Convergence is a campaign of learning to pursue an artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled battlefield management system, according to US Future Command. "Convergence" is one of the core tenets of the Army's warfighting concept and multi-domain operations.
These war games will be a decent test of the US Army's ability to operate along the strategically located First Island Chain, the series of islands running roughly 2,500 miles from Southeast Asia to Japan, Asian Times citing Breaking Defense.
"Part of what we're trying to replicate in some way is the battlefield geometry of the Indo-Pacific, (using) those similar geographical distances to stress these technologies," said Col. Andre Abadie, who co-leads PC21 planning for Army Futures Command.
Abadie said the goal would be to test the joint battle network over water in the actual Western Pacific.
US Army Futures Command chief Gen. John Murray said in a recent interview said that it's vital for the armed services to experiment to see what technologies actually work before they try to lock down what a future Joint All Domain Command & Control network should be.
"We're in the experimentation mode to understand what technology can and can't do," Murray said.
According to the US Future Command, Project Convergence enables the joint warfighting concept, joint all-domain operations, and all of its supporting concepts. Project Convergence brings together the right people, the right units, and the right capabilities, all correctly positioned around the world, enabled by the right technologies.
Project Convergence is the US Army's new campaign of learning, designed to aggressively advance and integrate our Army's contributions to the Joint Force.