Start with the hand receipt
A squad ISR node does not start with a shopping list. It starts with what the unit already signed for: an issued handheld running TAK, a MANET radio, a small drone from the cleared list, and a rugged computer at the command post. Software that cannot run on that kit will not reach the squad.
The kit is converging on standards the alliance already shares. In May the Army asked industry for the next Nett Warrior handheld: a rugged Android device that meets military environmental and security standards and runs the Tactical Assault Kit. It will replace a family of devices fielded since 2013. Small drones for US units come off the Blue UAS Cleared List, which moved from the Defense Innovation Unit to the Defense Contract Management Agency in December 2025. Allies are moving the same way. In February NATO listed the first commercial handhelds cleared for NATO RESTRICTED information.
The kit, and what EdgeLance does with it
| Role | What the unit fields | Standard it meets | What EdgeLance does with it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator handheld | Issued end user device running TAK | Program-of-record device; NATO catalogue listing for allied handhelds | Runs the mission workspace, publishes tracks as CoT, and keeps the full mission when the link drops |
| Small drone | Aircraft from the Blue UAS Cleared List | DCMA Blue UAS vetting | Reads MAVLink telemetry onto the asset roster with position, battery, and health |
| Full-motion video | EO/IR payloads emitting STANAG 4609 streams | MISB ST 0601 KLV metadata | Reads the metadata so every detection is geolocated and kept with its source frame |
| Imagery and reports | Intelligence products for the next echelon | NITF 2.1 | Packages mission evidence as NITF 2.1 products |
| Radio | Fielded MANET radios | The unit's existing waveform | Rides the radio as an IP network; devices sync peer to peer across whatever link is left |
| Command post | Rugged laptop or server | MIL-STD-810H environmental testing | Runs local AI, the multi-domain tracker, and the mission review; installs air-gapped from one signed package |
| Crewed aircraft | Transponders on helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft | ADS-B | Puts crewed traffic on the same picture as the drones |
Nothing in that table is bought for EdgeLance. The unit already owns it. EdgeLance is the layer that makes it one mission. It translates each format once into one mission vocabulary of observations, tracks, assets, and tasks, so a detection from one vendor's camera means the same thing to the tracker as a report from another vendor's drone.
Standards are the interoperability contract
NATO settled the hard part decades ago. STANAG 4586 defines how a control station talks to an unmanned aircraft and sets levels of interoperability, from receiving another nation's payload data to flying its aircraft. STANAG 4609 defines how motion imagery and its metadata move between nations' systems, with the KLV metadata set specified in MISB ST 0601. Federated Mission Networking has carried coalition network federation toward the tactical edge since its fourth spiral.
Those standards are the contract between nations. They are also the contract between a unit and its vendors. A product that reads the formats a coalition already emits joins the mission on the first day. A product that needs its own sensors, its own radio, or its own cloud adds a seam the coalition has to bridge by hand.
What the squad gets
Picture a squad on a ridgeline with two issued handhelds, a small drone, and a MANET link back to the platoon. The drone's video arrives with its KLV metadata. Detections become geolocated observations. The multi-domain tracker fuses them with radar, RF, and ADS-B reports and refuses inputs it cannot verify. Tracks go out as CoT to every TAK screen in range. Approved tasks come down from the platoon, and receipts go back up.
When the link to the platoon drops, nothing on the ridgeline stops. Each device holds the full mission, the squad keeps syncing peer to peer, and the record catches up when the link returns. The command post keeps the same picture, runs local AI against the unit's own documents, and keeps the record the debrief needs.
Three questions for any vendor
Before a unit adopts edge software, the S6 and the S2 should ask three questions. Does it run on the device the unit already issued, under the security configuration the unit already accredited? Does it read the formats the unit's sensors already emit: STANAG 4609 video with KLV, NITF imagery, CoT, and the drone's own telemetry? Does it keep working when the radio link drops, with the record intact for the review?
EdgeLance was built to answer yes to all three. Drones and helicopters in one airspace applies the same principle to crewed and uncrewed traffic, and Every squad is an emitter covers what the same kit costs in signature.