The 805th Combat Training Squadron's Shadow Operations Centre - Nellis, or ShOC-N, is the US Air Force's premier battle lab supporting key technologies and capabilities designed to compress the kill-chain for joint and coalition warfighters. Photo: US Air Force / Keith Keel
An American army commander visiting New Zealand has praised how the United States and New Zealand Defence Force are developing an integrated network, at the same time as the latest example of this integration comes to light.
The latest example is a project to connect this country's so-called "battle lab" into a combined command-and-control system, including experiments in what US strategic command called "dynamic targeting kill-chain automation".
The visit of General Ronald Clark this week with the head of the NZ army, Major General Rose King, focused on the strengthening of the two armies' strategic partnership.
Clark said the legacy of standing side-by-side in conflicts continued as the two forces built an "integrated landpower network" to preserve peace in the Indo-Pacific.
"Discussions focused on building further interoperability, advancing combined readiness initiatives, and the US Army's recent transformation efforts," NZDF said in a media release.
General Ronald Clark, Commanding General of United States Army Pacific and Major General Rose King, Chief of the New Zealand Army. Photo: NZDF
One "key" to the army networking was a joint US-led command-and-control system, called CJADC2, said documents newly released under the Official Information Act.
They show King has what is called a "capstone" (top priority) order to advance Interoperability with the US and other partners like Australia (this is one among six capstone orders).
The King-Clark meeting came during the 30,000-strong army exercise Talisman Sabre in Australia.
Talisman Sabre had "demonstrated growing interoperability across air, land, maritime, cyber, and space domains", NZDF said.
The battle-lab integration comes under the US Air Force, which this week ordered another half billion dollars of new technology to advance the project.
The NZDF said in response to RNZ inquiries, that it began participating in the Combined Federated Battle Lab network (CFBLNet) this year.
However, official US reports state New Zealand personnel took part in targeting experiments for it last year.
They also began last year taking part in the US army's main integration initiative, Project Convergence, where experiments have linked New Zealand sensor and firing systems into a wider network.
The multinational forces, particularly those of the Five Eyes partners - the US, Australia, UK, Canada and New Zealand - have have been working in earnest since last year to set up a mega-network, the Combined Joint All-Domain Command-and-Control (CJADC2) network.
This is essentially to develop technologies to find targets and shoot them more quickly and accurately.
The mega-network is being built to overlap with nuclear command-control-and-communications, Pentagon documents show.
An F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 195, taxis on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) while underway in the Timor Sea, 16 July 2025, in support of Talisman Sabre. Photo: US Navy / Seaman Apprentice Nicolas Quezad
'The NZDF is not a driver of the initiatives'
"The NZDF involvement in these initiatives is a function of the need to be able to work alongside our military partners," the force told RNZ in an OIA response.
"The NZDF is not a driver of the initiatives, and no NZDF project matches or mirrors the scale or nature of the United States' projects."
Green Party defence spokesperson Teanau Toiono said pursuing interoperability with the US was too costly.
"We're opposed to this US-led military regime but even if you look at it from an economic perspective, it's also expensive," Toiono said on Thursday.
The growing integration was negative; "because what's good for the US, I don't think is good for us and I don't think it's good for the Pacific region".
The Defence Force rejected RNZ's request for details about all recent integration moves, saying this required too much work.
Even if it did that work, a lot of this was about combat capabilities and interoperability so was "classified information and would not be made public".
King said in a release about Clark's visit that this country could not contribute mass and scale, but had soldiering quality to offer.
"To that end, it's been great to be able to share some insight with General Clark and his team around how we go about training our people."
She offered as an example a years-old, oft-delayed project to build a "Network Enabled Army" to improve digital communications and command-and-control interoperability, that would advance under the government's new defence capability plan.
The USS America (LHA 6), steams alongside US Navy ships from the America Strike Group, Royal Australian Navy, Republic of Korea Navy, Royal New Zealand Navy, French Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force as part of Talisman Sabre 25, on 20 July. Photo: US Navy / Petty Officer 2nd Class Cole Pursley
'Speed up the kill-chain'
The US air force's main contribution to the mega-network is called the Advanced Battle Management System; the army's is Project Convergence; the navy's is Project Overmatch, which New Zealand joined in February.
The US Air Force battle-labs experiments have involved New Zealand personnel in testing if new human-machine approaches are faster and better.
A US unit "pitted current warfighter systems and procedures against new technologies to gather insights and streamline operational and tactical C2 [command and control] processes to speed up the kill-chain and decision-making timeline", a US Air Force report said.
The Pentagon's "CJADC2 concept has challenged US joint and combined forces to prioritise achieving decision advantage over potential adversaries, to retain our warfighting advantage and enhance the deterrent effect of a powerful military".
The US team leading this was "currently working with Australia and New Zealand to connect their Battle Labs", the air force said last year.
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