Centurion by Legion Intelligence: AI That Survives Contact

During Scarlet Dragon 26-01, the XVIII Airborne Corps G2 evaluated Legion Intelligence’s Centurion, an agentic artificial intelligence (AI) system deployed at the tactical edge and capable of operating fully disconnected from cloud resources. Scarlet Dragon—recognized as the Army and Joint Force’s premier venue for CJADC2, Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2), and AI experimentation—provided an operationally realistic environment to assess whether AI could meaningfully accelerate Corps-level staff processes under contested communications conditions.

Centurion was deployed on a portable, on-premises server operating on the Corps’ tactical SIPR (IL6) network. Unlike cloud-dependent AI systems, Centurion functioned without reach-back connectivity, aligning with the realities of forward, bandwidth-constrained command and control. The system was installed in a single day, and most users became proficient within one hour.

Operational results were immediate and measurable. Intelligence production timelines were reduced from hours to minutes across multiple recurring workflows. By automating data distillation, structuring, and initial drafting, Centurion returned time to analysts and leaders to focus on judgment, assessment, and high-consequence decision-making. 

Scarlet Dragon 26-01 demonstrated that AI-enabled staff processes can significantly increase operational tempo and decision advantage—but only when AI is delivered as a forward-deployed, resilient capability integrated directly into staff workflows. Centurion supported faster decision-making, enabled leaner forward command and control, and provided a practical example of Applied Artificial Intelligence (AAI) delivering value under warfighting constraints today.

OPERATIONAL CONTEXT

Intelligence Production Is the Friction Point Under Contested Communications

The Scarlet Dragon exercise series was established by the XVIII Airborne Corps to advance Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), data-centric warfare, and the operational integration of artificial intelligence. Since its inception in 2020, Scarlet Dragon has served as the Army and Joint Force’s primary environment for evaluating how data, AI, and emerging technologies accelerate decision-making across sensors, shooters, and commanders.

Scarlet Dragon 26-01, conducted in December 2025, focused on validating a unified data layer and assessing AI-enabled capabilities under operationally realistic conditions. These conditions included high data volume, compressed timelines, and degraded, intermittent, or denied communications. For the XVIII Airborne Corps—America’s contingency corps—these conditions reflect how the Corps deploys, fights, and sustains operations globally. 

Within this environment, intelligence workflows represent a critical friction point. Corps-level staff must rapidly ingest large volumes of reporting, synthesize disparate sources, and deliver timely assessments to commanders. These processes are labor-intensive, cognitively demanding, and highly sensitive to delay. Even marginal improvements in speed and clarity can have outsized effects on operational tempo and decision advantage. Scarlet Dragon 26-01 therefore provided an ideal proving ground to evaluate whether Applied AI could reduce staff burden and accelerate insight without introducing new operational dependencies or vulnerabilities.

THE SYSTEM

CENTURION BY LEGION INTELLIGENCE: BUILT FOR THE TACTICAL EDGE

Legion Intelligence delivers agentic AI that automates and orchestrates real organizational workflows. The Legion platform connects authoritative data sources, governs tool-using agents, and produces auditable outputs that reduce cycle time and cognitive load. Centurion is Legion deployed as a forward, edge-native capability for environments where cloud access cannot be assumed. 

For Scarlet Dragon 26-01, Legion deployed a Centurion Large system connected to the Corps’ tactical SIPR (IL6) network. The Centurion Large is a portable, rack-scale HPE Gen12 DL380 server with two NVIDIA H200 GPUs capable of supporting up to 350 concurrent users. By executing locally, Centurion enabled Corps-level staff to employ AI capabilities without reliance on reach-back connectivity or external infrastructure—supporting leaner forward command and control nodes consistent with NGC2 concepts.

Centurion differs from other generative AI capabilities in four critical ways:

First, Centurion is agentic, not conversational. Rather than serving as a general-purpose chat interface, Centurion employs task-specific agents aligned to real staff workflows. These agents assist with defined processes—such as drafting an Intelligence Summary (INTSUM) or structuring a Target System Analysis (TSA)—mirroring how military staffs actually operate.

Second, Centurion uses deterministic, user-defined data ingestion. Analysts explicitly scope which data sources the system may access and how agents execute. This governed approach increases trust, improves consistency, and ensures outputs remain anchored to authoritative reporting rather than opaque or uncontrolled data.

Third, Centurion is a decision-support system, not a decision-maker. The platform accelerates synthesis, drafting, and organization while preserving human judgment for validation, assessment, and command advice—aligning with Army and Department of Defense expectations for responsible AI and human-in-the-loop decision-making.

Fourth, Centurion executes locally and remains operational in degraded, intermittent, or denied environments. All agents, workflows, and models run on the forward-deployed system, ensuring AI-enabled staff support persists when connectivity is contested. Cloud and enterprise environments serve as accelerators when available, not as dependencies.

WHY IT MATTERS

Cloud-Only AI Is Too High a Risk for Warfighting

Cloud-hosted AI has proven valuable for enterprise analytics, experimentation, and garrison environments. However, Scarlet Dragon 26-01 reinforced a fundamental reality of warfighting: connectivity is a vulnerability, not a given.

Forward-deployed headquarters operate under constant threat to networks, bandwidth, and infrastructure. AI systems that depend on persistent cloud access risk becoming unavailable at the moment of greatest operational demand. Even intermittent latency can disrupt staff battle rhythms and erode trust in AI-enabled processes.

Cloud-only architectures also introduce operational and security tradeoffs, including reliance on reach-back, expanded attack surfaces, and challenges in controlling data residency. For senior leaders responsible for readiness and resilience these risks are paramount.

Centurion’s architecture directly addresses these concerns. By delivering agentic AI forward—alongside the staff it supports—Centurion enables commanders to retain AI-enabled advantages in degraded, intermittent, or denied environments. Scarlet Dragon 26-01 demonstrated that local AI is not a contingency option, but a prerequisite for credible AI-enabled command and control in conflict.

RESULTS

Centurion Cut Intelligence Production From Hours to Minutes

During Scarlet Dragon 26-01, Legion’s Centurion L supported multiple recurring intelligence workflows that directly affect commander decision-making. Across each workflow, Centurion reduced production time, accelerated insight delivery, and decreased analyst cognitive burden.

Intelligence Summary (INTSUM)

The INTSUM is a foundational product for operational centers, providing a current assessment of the operational environment. Traditionally, producing an INTSUM requires approximately four hours of analyst effort per product.

Using Centurion, analysts scoped authoritative reporting and tasked an INTSUM-specific agent to generate a structured draft. Centurion produced a draft in approximately five minutes, which analysts reviewed and refined prior to dissemination.

Observed outcomes:

• INTSUM production time reduced from ~4 hours to ~5 minutes (48x faster)
• Customer-specific agent workflow built and refined in under five hours

“I can spend my time doing critical thinking and analysis, rather than finding information and formatting a document.” – Army All-Source Analyst

Target System Analysis (TSA)

TSA supports targeting decisions by organizing adversary capabilities, vulnerabilities, and critical nodes. Manual TSA development typically requires approximately 30 minutes of analyst time per system.

During the exercise, Centurion generated TSAs for user-defined systems (e.g., SA-21), enabling analysts to rapidly produce initial assessments for review by subject matter experts and presentation to the Fires Cell.

Observed outcomes:

• TSA generation time reduced from ~30 minutes to ~2 minutes (15x faster)
• Legion-generated TSAs assessed as ~85% accurate prior to analyst refinement

“As a thought partner, this saves time and provides insights I hadn’t considered.” – All-Source Intelligence NCO

Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment (IPOE)

During IPOE Step 1 (Define the Operational Environment), Centurion assisted analysts by rapidly structuring large volumes of higher headquarters orders and reference products. By automating initial organization and synthesis, the staff converged on shared understanding more quickly and reduced rework.

Observed outcomes:

• Thousands of pages of documents processed and structured in minutes
• Customer-specific agent workflow built and refined in under five hours

“Its ability to find what’s relevant and help generate products is a huge time savings.” – Army All-Source Intelligence Analyst

TAKEAWAY

APPLIED AI THAT SURVIVES CONTACT WITH REALITY

Scarlet Dragon 26-01 demonstrated that the operational value of AI is defined not by novelty, but by resilience, integration, and impact on real workflows. Legion Intelligence’s Centurion showed that agentic AI can materially accelerate Corps-level staff processes while operating under the constraints expected in future conflict.

By compressing intelligence production timelines and reducing staff burden, Centurion enabled analysts and leaders to focus on judgment and decision-making—the core of command and control. Just as importantly, it did so without introducing fragile dependencies on cloud connectivity.

For senior operational and acquisition leaders, Scarlet Dragon 26-01 reinforced a clear lesson aligned with Department of Defense and Army AI strategy: credible Applied AI must function in degraded environments, integrate with authoritative data, preserve human decision authority, and deliver measurable cycle-time reduction. Centurion provides a practical, operationally validated example of Applied AI supporting CJADC2 and NGC2 objectives at the tactical edge today.