Army Futures Command

Catergory:Orgs {{Expansion depth limit exceeded|OrganizationName=United States Army Futures Command |OrganizationType=Government Agency/Military Command |Mission=To develop and deliver future warfighting concepts, capabilities, and formations to ensure that the U.S. Army remains the world's premier land force. |ParentOrganization=Department of the Army |TopOrganization=Department of Defense |CreationLegislation=No specific legislation; established by Army Directive 2018-15 in August 2018. |Employees=24000 |Budget=Not publicly detailed, but operates within the Army's research, development, testing, and evaluation budget, which is billions annually. |OrganizationExecutive=General James E. Rainey (Commanding General) |Services=* Concept Development for future warfare.

Cross-Functional Teams focusing on key modernization areas like AI, robotics, and cyber.
Experimentation and testing of new technologies and tactics.
Collaboration with industry, academia, and international partners for innovation.

|Regulations=* Subject to Department of Defense regulations on military strategy, technology acquisition, and security.

Compliance with federal acquisition regulations for contracts and partnerships.

|HeadquartersLocation=30.2711, -97.7437 |HeadquartersAddress=2100 5th St, Bldg 2101, Austin, TX 78701 |Website=[1](https://www.army.mil/futures) }} {{Expansion depth limit exceeded|U.S. Army Command that runs modernization projects}}

The United States Army Futures Command (AFC) is a United States Army command that runs modernization projects.{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=g357}} It is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

The AFC began initial operations on 1 July 2018.Expansion depth limit exceeded It was created as a peer of Forces Command (FORSCOM), Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), and Army Materiel Command (AMC).Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded While the other commands focus on readiness to "fight tonight", AFC aims to improve future readiness for competition with near-peers.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The AFC commander functions as the Army's chief modernization investment officer.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

It is supported by the United States Army Reserve Innovation Command (75th Innovation Command).Expansion depth limit exceeded

History

{{Expansion depth limit exceeded| Transformation of the United States Army#Four Army commands}}

2018

Army Futures Command was established by Secretary of the Army Mark Esper to improve Army acquisition by creating better requirements and reducing the time to develop a system to meet them.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Between 1995 and 2009, the Army spent $32 billion on programs such as the Future Combat SystemExpansion depth limit exceeded that were later cancelled with no harvestable content.Expansion depth limit exceeded As of 2021, the Army had not fielded a new combat system in decades.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

General Mark Milley, then Army Chief of Staff, helped establish the Army Futures Command.Expansion depth limit exceeded Under Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy played a major role in its development. Its first commander was General John Murray,Expansion depth limit exceeded formerly the Army's G-8.{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=g357}}

Over his tenure as Army Secretary, Esper led a process known as "night court", working with other top service officials, to free up and shift billions of dollars into modernization programs and based the new command in Austin, Texas, an area known for its innovative, technology-focused workforce.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The Army gave the command's chief and the leaders of new groups, dubbed "§ cross-functional teams", the authority to manage requirements and the leeway to direct dollars.

At its founding, Futures Command was focused on six priorities:Expansion depth limit exceeded Long-range precision fires, Next Generation Combat Vehicle, Future Vertical Lift platforms, a mobile & expeditionary Army network, air and missile defense capabilities,Expansion depth limit exceeded and soldier lethality.

Murray announced plans to stand up an Army Applications LabExpansion depth limit exceeded to accelerate acquisition and deployment of materiel to the soldiers, including by using artificial intelligence (AI). Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Murray also said he would hire a chief technology officer for AFC.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

A fundamental strategy was formulated, involving simultaneous integrated operations across domains.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded This strategy involves pushing adversaries to standoff,{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= standoffDomes |1=

File:Army ccdc domes of protection 0.jpg

In standoff,Expansion depth limit exceeded adversaries attempt to project protected areas against each other.Expansion depth limit exceeded Within these protected areas, friends are deemed safe, but foes who attempt penetration are endangered by the capabilities of the allies arrayed against them. Outside these protected areas, adversaries compete for control, by projecting their power.

}} Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded by presenting them with multiple simultaneous dilemmas.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=leoLRPFKillChain}} A goal is that by 2028, the ability to project rapid, responsive power across domains will have become apparent to potential adversaries.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= lessonsFromRUkr}}

In 2018, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said Futures Command would have three areas of focus:Expansion depth limit exceeded

Combat Development: stabilized concepts.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Balance the current state of technology and the cash-flow requirements of the defense contractors providing the technology, that they become deliverable experiments, demonstrations, and prototypes, in an iterative process of acquisition.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded| name= 24of35InFy2023}}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= waypointsToMDO}} (See Value stream)
Combat Systems: experiments, demonstrations, and prototypes.Expansion depth limit exceeded Transition to the acquisition, production, and sustainment programs of AMC.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= asaWsh2018ToC| ASA(ALT) (2018) Weapon Systems Handbook update Page 32 lists how the Weapon Systems Handbook is organized. 440 pages.

By Modernization priority
By Acquisition or Business System category (ACAT or BSC). The Weapon systems in each ACAT are sorted alphabetically by Weapon system name. Each weapon system might also be in several variants (Lettered); a weapon system's variants might be severally and simultaneously in the following phases of its Life Cycle, namely—°Materiel Solution Analysis; °Technology Maturation & Risk Reduction; °Engineering & Manufacturing Development; °Production & Deployment; °Operations & Support
ACAT I, II, III, IV are defined on page 404.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded}}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= unclMdoConcept |1= The Army's unclassified Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) concept is "the combined arms employment of capabilities from all domains that create and exploit relative advantages to defeat enemy forces, achieve objectives and consolidate gains during competition, crisis, and armed conflict".Expansion depth limit exceeded}}

{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|Flexible, accessible command}}Army Secretary Mark Esper said that the 2018 administrative infrastructure for the Futures and Concepts Center (formerly ARCIC) and United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC, now called DEVCOM, (formerly RDECOM)) remains in place at their existing locations.Expansion depth limit exceeded What has changed or will change is the layers of command (operational control, or OPCON)Expansion depth limit exceeded needed to make a decision.Expansion depth limit exceeded

2019

AFC declared its full operational capability in July 2019,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded after an initial one-year period.Expansion depth limit exceeded The FY2020 military budget allocated $30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over next five years.Expansion depth limit exceeded The $30 billion came from $8 billion in cost avoidance and $22 billion in terminations.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded More than 30 projectsExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded were envisioned to become the materiel basis needed for overmatching any potential competitors in the 'continuum of conflict' over the next ten yearsExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded in multi-domain operations (MDO).Expansion depth limit exceeded

From an initial 12 people at its headquarters in 2018, AFC grew to more than 17,000 peopleExpansion depth limit exceeded across 25 states and 15 countries in 2019.Expansion depth limit exceeded research facilities and personnel (including ARCIC and RDECOM) moved from other commands and parts of the Army such as the United States Army Research Laboratory.Expansion depth limit exceeded

2020

ASA(ALT) Bruce Jette started xTechsearch to reward private innovators.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=xtechsearch|1= {{Expansion depth limit exceeded|xTechSearch}}The 2020 {{Expansion depth limit exceeded|xTechSearch}} top ten semifinalists (who will each receive $120,000) are:Expansion depth limit exceeded

Bounce Imaging, for a tactical throwable camera (self-orienting, pointable camera)
GeneCapture, for deployable medical tests
Inductive Ventures, for magnetic braking of helicopters
IoT/AI, for hardware IoT AI devices
LynQ Technologies, for a GPS beacon
KeriCure, for wound care
MEI Micro, for Micro Electronic-Mechanical System Inertial Measurement Unit (assured position, navigation, and timing—A-PNT)
Multiscale Systems, for meta-material
Novaa, for single-aperture antennas ( multi-band rather than 1 dedicated antenna per application)
Vita Inclinata, stabilized anti-spin hoisting for pulling injured people on a stretcher into a hovering helicopter

Expansion depth limit exceeded }} The COVID-19 pandemic led the Army to run an {{Expansion depth limit exceeded|xTechsearch}} Ventilator Challenge.Expansion depth limit exceeded TRX Systems won an {{Expansion depth limit exceeded|xTechsearch}} award for technology that allows navigation in a GPS-denied environment.

2021

On 13 October 2021, Army officials said most of AFC's 31 signature systems,Expansion depth limit exceeded and the four rapid capability projects of the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office would be fielded by fiscal year 2023.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded| name= 24of35InFy2023|Andrew Eversden (17 Dec 2021) Here's the Army's 24 programs in soldiers' hands by 2023

Precision Strike Missile (§ PrSM)
Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA)
Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) will not deploy by 1 Oct 2023.Expansion depth limit exceeded
Mid-range capability (§ MRC) missile, also called Strategic Mid-Range Fires (SMRF)Expansion depth limit exceeded
Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV)
Robotic Combat Vehicle (§ RCV)
Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF)
Future Unmanned Aircraft Systems/ Future Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (FUAS)/(FTUAS)Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded
Integrated Tactical Network (§ ITN) unified with § echelons above brigade, and the multi-domain task forces
Common Operating Environment: Command Post Computing EnvironmentExpansion depth limit exceeded/Mounted Computed Environment (CPCE)/(MCE) See Common operational picture
Command Post Integrated Infrastructure (CPI2)
Mounted Assured Positioning, Navigation, and Timing System (MAPS)Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded
Dismounted Assured Positioning, Navigation, and Timing System (DAPS)Expansion depth limit exceeded
Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) using high-energy lasers
Indirect Fires Protection Capability: Iron Dome
Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor ([[Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System
Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor|§ LTAMDS]])Expansion depth limit exceeded - Patriot radar replacement
Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense (§ IBCS)
Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (DE M-SHORAD)Expansion depth limit exceeded High energy lasers
Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW)
Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS)
Enhanced Night Vision Goggle – Binocular (ENVG-B)
Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainer (RVCT) - Synthetic training environment
IVAS Squad Immersive Virtual Trainer (SiVT) - Synthetic training environment
One World Terrain/ Training Management Tools/ Training Simulation Software (OWT) / (TMT) / (TSS) - Synthetic training environment,Expansion depth limit exceeded

Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded }}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= waypointsToMDO| In Future Vertical Lift, FARA and FLRAA are projected to be prototyped by 2028, with fielding by 2030.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The OMFV prototype is projected for 2025.Expansion depth limit exceeded}}

2022

In 2022, Army leaders projected that 24 of the top-35 priority modernization programs would be deployed by fiscal 2023.Expansion depth limit exceeded

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth announced the top six areas for the Army of 2030:Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 43:30}} 1) improved intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; 2) "Coordination at greater speed";{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= leoLRPFKillChain}} 3) "Win the Fires fight"; 4) concealmentExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded via improved mobility and reduced signature; 5) "talk often and quickly";Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=hyten2020}} and 6) logistics.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Expansion depth limit exceeded Expansion depth limit exceeded

{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|Project Convergence}}By 2022, Futures Command was conducting the third annual iteration of Project Convergence: experiments and joint tests of 300 technologies by the Defense Department and its allies and partners.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|Army of 2040}}In October 2022, Wormuth assigned AFC to work on "Army of 2040" concepts.{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=g357}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 51:00}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Two months later, Futures Command hosted a conference with representatives from AMC, TRADOC, FORSCOM, and Headquarters Department of the Army.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded AFC is leading the development of a new Army Operating Concept (v. 1.0) for the Army of 2030 to 2040.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=g357}}

2024

The 'All-domain sensing cross-functional team' (CFT) is standing up to support the plethora of data coming from data sources across the joint and combined services, allies, and partners.Expansion depth limit exceeded This CFT is built from the existing PNT (positioning, navigation, and tracking) CFT.Expansion depth limit exceeded See Combined JADC2. The contested logistics CFT was stood up in 2023.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Organization

The commanding general is assisted by three deputy commanders.

The Futures and Concepts Center:Expansion depth limit exceeded The first commander was AFC deputy commanding general General Eric J. Wesley,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded and it was led in 2021 by Lieutenant General Scott McKean.Expansion depth limit exceeded The center operates along four lines of effort: science and technology,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded experiments, concepts development,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded and requirements development.Expansion depth limit exceeded
Combat Development:Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Helps AFC commander to assess and integrate the future operational environment, emerging threats, and technologies to develop and deliver concepts, requirements, and future force designs.

The capability development integration directorate (CDID) of each Center of Excellence, works with its CFTExpansion depth limit exceeded and its research, development and engineering center to develop operational experiments and prototypes to test.
The Battle Labs and the Research Analysis CenterExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded prototype and analyze the concepts to test.
The Joint Modernization Command (JMC) provides live developmental experiments to test those concepts or capabilities, "scalable from company level to corps, amid tough, realistic multi-domain operations".Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded
The Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC, or DEVCOM), the former RDECOM, part of the Combat Development element. Stood up on 3 February 2019.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Acquisition and Systems (founded as Combat Systems in 2018):{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=pmildepAsaAlt|1= The Combat Systems DirectorateExpansion depth limit exceeded was to be led by the ASA(ALT)'s Principal Military Deputy Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded (Principal Military Deputy (PMILDEP) to the ASA(ALT)) Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|AD2018-15,6b:PMILDEP will additionally be AFC director, Combat Systems}}Expansion depth limit exceeded who will produce those developed solutions and seek feedback.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded In 2022, AD2018-15 was rescinded by Army Directive AD2022-07,Expansion depth limit exceeded which in turn is subject to rescission 180 days after passage of FY2023 NDAA.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded}}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=g357}}

Gen. Robert Abrams has tasked III Corps with providing soldier feedback for the Next Generation Combat Vehicles CFT, XVIII Corps for the soldier feedback on the soldier lethality CFT, the Network CFT, as well as the Synthetic Training CFT, and I Corps for the Long Range Precision Fires CFT.Expansion depth limit exceeded Combat Systems refines, engineers, and produces the developed solutions from Combat Development.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

File:Multi-domain operations,investmentPlan2020.png

name=leoLRPFKillChain}} to encourage adversaries to return to competition rather than continue a conflict.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Cross-functional teams

When AFC was created in 2018, it was given eight cross-functional teams, or CFTs: one for each of the Army's six modernization priorities, and two others for broader capabilities. These teams are Long-Range Precision Fires, Next-Generation Combat Vehicles, Future Vertical Lift, the Network to include Precision Navigation and Timing, Air-and-Missile Defense, Soldier Lethality and Synthetic Training Environment.

In 2023, the Army announced that it would create a ninth team, for Contested Logistics.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The 2023 exercises for IndoPacom will test its prepositioned stocks.Expansion depth limit exceeded The CG of Army Materiel Command is taking the lead for contested logistics.Expansion depth limit exceeded

In 2018, McCarthy characterized a CFT as a team of teams, led by a requirements leader, program manager, sustainer and tester.Expansion depth limit exceeded Some CFTs also have representatives of U.S. allies.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Each CFT lead is mentored by a 4-star general.Expansion depth limit exceeded Each CFT can have a Capability Development Integration Directorate.Expansion depth limit exceeded For example, the Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, in coordination with the Aviation Program Executive Officer (PEO), contains the Vertical Lift CFT and the Aviation CDID. "We were never above probably a total of eight people", the Aviation CFT's Brigadier General Wally Rugen said in 2018.Expansion depth limit exceeded Four of the eight CFT leads have now shifted from dual-hat jobs to full-time status.

Each CFT must strike a balance amid constraints—the realms of requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment—to produce a realizable concept before a competitor achieves it.Expansion depth limit exceeded

The Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC) itself serves as a kind of CFT,{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=g357}} operating at a higher levelExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded as response to Congressional oversight, budgeting, funding, policy, and authorization for action.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

AFC and the CFTs are expected to unify control of the Army' s $30 billion modernization budget.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded[[File:Multi Domain Operations,space.png|thumb|upright=1.4|Multi-domain operations (MDO){{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= unclMdoConcept}} span multiple domains: cislunar space, land, air, maritime, cyber, and populations.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 17:45}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Echelons above brigade (division, corps, and theater army) engage in a continuum of conflict. —This illustration is from The MDO Concept, TRADOC pamphlet 525-3-1.{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= mdoExplainer |1= Echelons above brigade (division, corps, and theater army) engage in a continuum of conflict.{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=hyten2020|1= Colin Clark (18 Feb 2020) Gen. Hyten On The New American Way of War: All-Domain Operations (ADO)

"A computer-coordinated fight": in the air, land, sea, space, cyber, and the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS)

"forces from satellites to foot soldiers to submarines sharing battle data at machine-to-machine speed"

"it's the ability to integrate and effectively command and control all domains in a conflict or in a crisis seamlessly"—Gen. Hyten, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

All-Domain Operations (ADO) use global capabilities: "space, cyber, deterrent [the nuclear triad (for mutually assured destruction in the Cold War, an evolving concept in itself)], transportation, electromagnetic spectrum operations, missile defense"

}} {{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= leoLRPFKillChain|1= Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (November 22, 2019) SecArmy's Multi-Domain Kill Chain: Space-Cloud-AI Army Multi-Domain Operations Concept, December 2018 slide from TRADOC pamphlet 525-3-1 (Dec 2018). {{Expansion depth limit exceeded|jadoDevFromMdo}}[[File:Multi Domain Operations,space.png|thumb|Multi-domain operations (MDO) span multiple domains: cislunar space, land, air, maritime, cyber, and populations.]]

In September 2020 an ABMS Onramp demonstrated a specific scenario, which can be illustrated by the 5 red numbered bullet points from the slide in TRADOC pamphlet 525-3-1:

Competition— No overt hostilities are yet detected. Blue bar (force projection) is in standoff against red bar (threat).
Strategic Support area— National assets (blue) detect breaching of standoff by adversary (in red).
Close area support— blue assets hand-off to the combatant commands, who are to create effects visible to the adversary (in red).
Deep maneuver— blue combatant actions dis-integrate adversary efforts (per TRADOC pamphlet 525-3-1: "militarily compete, penetrate, dis-integrate, and exploit" the adversary); —Operational and Strategic deep fires create effects on the adversary. Adversary is further subject to defeat in detail, until adversaries perceive they are overmatched (no more red assets to expend).
Adversary retreats to standoff. The populations perceive that the adversary is defeated, for now. (Compare to Perkins' cycle, 'return to competition', in which deterrence has succeeded in avoiding a total war, in favor of pushing an adversary back to standoff (the red threat bar). Blue force projection still has overmatched red threat.)}}Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 17:45}}Expansion depth limit exceeded }}]]

Partners

File:Project Convergence- A Campaign of Learning VbReHneabGw.webm

name=hyten2020}}

AFC has given research funding to more than 300 colleges and universitiesExpansion depth limit exceeded with one-year program cycles.Expansion depth limit exceeded "We will come to you. You don't have to come to us," Murray said on 24 August 2018",Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 6:07}}Expansion depth limit exceeded

Multiple incubator tech hubs are available in Austin,Expansion depth limit exceeded especially Capital Factory, with offices of Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and AFWERX (USAF tech hub).Expansion depth limit exceeded

AFC will work with other organizations such as Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) as needed.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Locations

AFC's headquarters is based in Austin, Texas where it spreads across three locations totaling 75,000 ft²;Expansion depth limit exceeded One location is a University of Texas System building at 210 W. Seventh St. in downtown Austin, on the 15th and 19th floors; UT Regents did not charge rent to AFC through December 2019.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

AFC personnel also operate in and from dozens of military installations around the country, including:

File:SHARPtestingAvatar.jpg

A simulation used to put leadership teams in a situation akin to a Combat Training Center rotation, "an intellectually and emotionally challenging environment that forgives the mistakes of the participants"Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded In a role-playing session; a trainer (not seen) must tell the virtual Soldier what the Soldier is not doing correctly. Trainers using this program show a 40% increase in their knowledge of the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention policy.Expansion depth limit exceeded These simulations are created at Army Research Laboratory (ARL) West, and ICT, Playa Vista, CA

File:US Army electroencephalogram.jpg

CCDC Army Research Laboratory Neuroscience Big Data: over ten years of EEG data, comprising over 1,000 recording sessions (The Cognition and Neuroergonomics Collaborative Technology Alliance)Expansion depth limit exceeded

AFSG Army Future Studies Group,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded 2530 Crystal Dr, Arlington, VA 22202
AFC Futures and Concepts Center,Expansion depth limit exceeded formerly ARCIC Fort Eustis VA
JMC Joint Modernization Command,Expansion depth limit exceeded Fort Bliss, which is contiguous to WSMR
White Sands Missile Range NM,Expansion depth limit exceeded also houses ARL,Expansion depth limit exceeded TRAC,Expansion depth limit exceeded and Army Test and Evaluation Command.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 1:19:00}}
FT LVN Operations research: Mission Command Battle Lab,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Capability development integration directorate (CDID),Expansion depth limit exceeded The Research Analysis Center (TRAC), formerly TRADOC Analysis Center,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Fort Leavenworth KS

CFT: Synthetic Training Environment (STE):Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The HQ for STE has opened in Orlando (28 January 2019).Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|p.27}}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= asaWsh2018ToC}}

CCOE Cyber CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),Expansion depth limit exceeded Fort Eisenhower GA

CFT: Mobile and Expeditionary NetworkExpansion depth limit exceeded

MCOE Maneuver CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),Expansion depth limit exceeded Fort Moore GA

CFT:  Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV)Expansion depth limit exceeded
CFT:  Soldier Lethality

AVNCOE Aviation CoE - (its CDID),Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded at Fort Novosel

CFT:  Future Vertical Lift (FVL)

FCOE Fires CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Doctrine updates to support strategic firesExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Fort Sill OK

CFT:  Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF)Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded
CFT:  Air and Missile Defense

ICOE Intelligence CoE - (its CDID),Expansion depth limit exceeded Fort Huachuca AZ
MSCOE Maneuver Support CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),Expansion depth limit exceeded Fort Leonard Wood MO
SCOE Sustainment CoE - (its CDID),Expansion depth limit exceeded Fort Gregg-Adams VA
APGExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen MD, also houses Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC, now called DEVCOM),Expansion depth limit exceeded formerly RDECOM, Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA), and C5ISR centerExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded (the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center was formerly CERDEC)

CFT:  Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT)Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded
CFT:  Network CFT (N-CFT)Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|p.5}}
CFT:  Long Range Precision Fires,Expansion depth limit exceeded

CCDC Armaments Center (formerly Armament research, development and engineering center—ARDEC), Picatinny Arsenal, PEO AMMO

CFT:  Long Range Precision Fires

CCDC Ground Vehicle Systems Center (formerly Tank Automotive research, development and engineering center—TARDEC), Detroit Arsenal (Warren, Michigan)

CFT:  Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV)

Army Aviation and Missile Center (formerly Aviation and Missile research, development and engineering center—AMRDEC), Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville ALExpansion depth limit exceeded

CFT:  Air and Missile Defense

CCDC Soldier CenterExpansion depth limit exceeded (formerly Natick Soldier research, development and engineering center—NSRDEC), General Greene Ave, Natick, MA
Army Research Laboratory (ARL),Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Adelphi MD
ARL-Orlando Army Research Laboratory,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|p.27}}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= asaWsh2018ToC}} Orlando FL
ARL West, Playa VistaExpansion depth limit exceeded CA
ARL-RTP Army Research Laboratory, Raleigh-Durham NC
AI task force at Carnegie-Mellon UniversityExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Work

AI

In 2018, the Army secretary ordered AFC to draft an execution order to create an Army AI Task Force (A-AI TF) to support the DoD Joint AI center.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The Army AI task force establish scalable machine learning projects at Carnegie Mellon University.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

That same year, the Army Applications Laboratory was established along with AFC to help connect Army-future efforts and commercial products and ideas.Expansion depth limit exceeded

In 2019, the Army CIO/G-6 was ordered to create an Identity, Credential, and Access Management system to efficiently issue and verify credentials to non-person entities (AI agents and machines)Expansion depth limit exceeded As well, DCS G-2 will coordinate with CG AFC, and director of A-AI TF, to provide intelligence for Long-Range Precision Fires. CG AMC will provide functional expertise and systems for maintenance of materiel with AI. AFC and A-AI TF will establish an AI test bed for experimentation, training, deployment, and testing of machine learning capabilities and workflows.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

In 2022, DEVCOM Analysis Center (DAC) signed a cooperative agreement with Northeastern University's Kostas Research Institute (KRI) to build on KRI's analytic framework, with six other universities on artificial intelligence and assistive automation (AI/AA), to further Army sub-goals ("mission effectiveness analysis, ontology for decision making, automatic target recognition, human systems integration, cyber resilience/electronic warfare threat defense, and assessing autonomous maneuver/mobility").Expansion depth limit exceeded

Software

Futures Command was to stand up Army Software Factory in August 2021, to immerse soldiers and Army civilians of all ranks in modern software development, in Austin.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Like the Training with Industry program, participants are expected to take these practices back with them, to influence other Army people in their future assignments, and to build up the Army's capability in software development. The training program lasts three years, and will produce skill sets for trainees as product managers, user experience and user interface designers, software engineers, or platform engineers.Expansion depth limit exceeded The Al Work Force Development program and this Software Factory will complement the Artificial Intelligence Task Force.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The Army has identified soldiers who can already code at Ph.D.-level, but who are in unexpected MOSs.Expansion depth limit exceeded In March 2023 the Marine Corps moved its software factory to the Army's software factory in Austin, Texas.Expansion depth limit exceeded

Data

The Army looks for ideas from defense contractors In 2018, for example, the Network CFT and the Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications—Tactical (PEO C3T) hosted a forum so vendors could learn what products might soon work as testable or deployable systems.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Vendors submitted hundreds of white papers; ones with "very mature ideas" were passed to the Army's acquisition community and to the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).Expansion depth limit exceeded

The Army is interested in ways to accelerate acquisition programs. For example, this was an explicit request in the 2019 solicitation for requests for information about Future Vertical Lift.Expansion depth limit exceeded In January 2020, the optionally manned fighting vehicle solicitation was cancelled when its requirements added up to an unobtainable project;Expansion depth limit exceeded

Robotic combat vehicles

File:RoboticCombatVehicle-light.jpg

Robotic combat vehicle (RCV)

File:ProjectOriginRcv.webp

Project Origin unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), at Joint Multinational Readiness Center, Hohenfels, GermanyExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

By October 2021, experiments with a company-sized tele-operated / unmanned formation were underway at Camp Grayling, Michigan.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The 18 light and medium robotic combat vehicles (RCV), in concert with surrogate heavy RCVs (modified M113 armored personnel carriers), proxy manned control vehicles (MET-Ds), and drones for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), were to complete ATEC (Army Test and Evaluation Command) safety testing in May 2022Expansion depth limit exceeded and live-fire drills in August 2022.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

By June 2022, Army RCVs had demonstrated some disruptive capabilities,Expansion depth limit exceeded in preparation for Project Convergence 2022. At PC22, resupply by unmanned helicopters and other autonomous capabilities were demonstrated by systems from the US, Australia, and UK.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|min 25:30}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

In May 2023, Army Futures Command disclosed concepts for robotic combat platoons,Expansion depth limit exceeded akin to the collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) of the Air Force.Expansion depth limit exceeded

Acquisition

Futures Command works with the ASA(ALT),Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded who as Army Acquisition Executive (AAE),Expansion depth limit exceeded has milestone decision authority (MDA)Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded at multiple points in a materiel development decision (MDD).Expansion depth limit exceeded AFC consolidates expertise into the relevant CFT, which balances the constraints needed to realize a prototype, beginning with requirements, science and technology, test, etc., then enters the acquisition process (typically the Army prototypes on its own and, as of 2019, initiates acquisition at Milestone B in order to have the Acquisition Executive, with the concurrence of the Army Chief of Staff, decide on production as a Program of Record at Milestone C).Expansion depth limit exceeded Next, refine the prototype to address the factors needed to pass the Milestone decisions A, B, and C which require Milestone decision authority (MDA) in an acquisition process.Expansion depth limit exceeded This consolidation of expertise thus reduces the risks in a Materiel development decision (MDD), for the Army to admit a prototype into a program of record.) The existing processes (as of April 2018) for a Materiel development decision (MDD) have been updated to clarify their place in the Life Cycle of a program of record:Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded over 1,200 programs/projects were reviewed;Expansion depth limit exceeded by October 2019, over 600 programs of record had been moved from the acquisition phase to the sustainment phase.Expansion depth limit exceeded An additional life cycle management action is underway, to re-examine which of these projects or programs should be cancelled.Expansion depth limit exceeded

Futures Command picks which programs to develop.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Each CFT works with the Army Acquisition Corps,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC), and Army Contracting Command.Expansion depth limit exceeded The Principal Military Deputy to the ASA(ALT) is also deputy commanding general for Combat Systems, Army Futures Command,Expansion depth limit exceeded and leads the Program Executive Officers (PEO); he has directed each PEO who does not have a CFT to coordinate with, to immediately form one, at least informally.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|The current acquisition system has pieces all throughout the Army. ... There's chunks of it in TRADOC and chunks of it in AMC and then other pieces. So really all we're trying to do is get them all lined up under a single command…..from concept, S&T, RDT&E, through the requirements process, through the beginnings of the acquisition system—Milestone A, B, and C.Expansion depth limit exceeded|author=Defense Secretary Mark Esper}}

The PEOs work closely with their respective CFTs.Expansion depth limit exceeded Operationally, the CFTs reduce degrees of separation between Army echelons,Expansion depth limit exceeded and provide a point of contact for Army reformers.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Prototyping and experimentation

The development process will consist of one or more cycles (prototype, demonstration/testing, and evaluation,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded) meant to find and discard unrealistic requirements before a project becomes a program.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded "Our new approach is really to prototype as much as we can to help us identify requirements, so our reach doesn't exceed our grasp. ... A good example is Future Vertical Lift: The prototyping has been exceptional," Esper said in 2019.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= waypointsToMDO}}

AFC activities include at least one cross-functional team, its capability development integration directorate (CDID),Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|Para. 2b}} and the associated Battle Lab,Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|Para. 2b}} for each Army Center of Excellence. Each CDID and associated Battle Lab work with their CFT to develop operational experiments and prototypes to test.Expansion depth limit exceeded

ASA(ALT), in coordination with AFC, has dotted-line relationships between its PEOs and the CFTs. In particular, the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office of ASA(ALT) has a PEO to develop experimental prototype "units of action" for rapid fielding. In June 2019, the prototypes were for long-range hypersonic weapons, high-energy laser defense, and space,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The Army tripled its spending on speed and range capabilities from 2017 to 2019.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

CFTs and PEOs order up tests run by JMC and White Sands Missile Range, which hosts United States Army Test and Evaluation Command.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Test results are analyzed by the Research and Analysis Center at Fort Leavenworth.Expansion depth limit exceeded

CCDC, now called DEVCOM (formerly RDECOM, at APG) includes the several Army research laboratory locations,Expansion depth limit exceeded as well as research, development and engineering centers listed:Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

CCDC is focusing on long-range precision fires the six RDECs and the Army Research Laboratory. As of September 2018, RDECOM's "concept of operation" is first to support the LRPF CFT,Expansion depth limit exceeded with ARDEC. AMRDEC is looking to improve the energetics and efficiency of projectiles. TARDEC Ground Vehicle Center is working on high-voltage components for extended range cannon artillery that save on size and weight.Expansion depth limit exceeded Two dedicated RDECOM people support the LRPF CFT, with reachback support from two dozen more at RDECOM.Expansion depth limit exceeded In January 2019, RDECOM was renamed CCDC; General Murray noted that CCDC will have to support more soldier feedback, and that prototyping and testing will have to begin before a project ever becomes a program of record.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Acquisition specialists are being encouraged to accept lateral transfers to RDECs where their skills are needed: Ground Vehicle Systems Center (formerly TARDEC, at Detroit Arsenal. Michigan), Aviation and Missile Center (formerly AMRDEC, at Redstone Arsenal), C5ISR Center (formerly CERDEC, at Aberdeen Proving Ground), Soldier Center (formerly NSRDEC, Natick, Massachusetts), and Armaments Center (formerly ARDEC, at Picatinny Arsenal) listed below.Expansion depth limit exceeded

Esper said AFC will reduce the time needed to define requirements for a new program from 60 to 12 months.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Requirements may be reduced to "a simple statement of a problem."Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 41:50}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 11:00}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The development process will consist of repeated prototyping, demonstration/testing, and evaluation, designed to find and eliminated unrealistic requirements. ASA(ALT) Bruce Jette says the acquisition community should seek to fail and find a new solution rather than commit a program to a drawn-out failure.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Esper scrubbed through 800Expansion depth limit exceeded modernization programs to reprioritize fundingExpansion depth limit exceeded for the top six modernization priorities,Expansion depth limit exceeded which will consume 80% of the modernization funding,Expansion depth limit exceeded of 18 systems.Expansion depth limit exceeded His "night court" budget review process shifted $2.4 billion for modernization from programs that were not tied to modernization or to the 2018 National Defense Strategy.Expansion depth limit exceeded

Budgets will likely restrict the fielding of new materiel to one Armor BCT per year;Expansion depth limit exceeded at that rate, updates would take decades.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

In 2019, the CIO/G6 piloted "enterprise IT-as-a-service"-style service contracts at AFC. In July 2019, such a contract set up a sensitive compartmented information facility at AFC headquarters.Expansion depth limit exceeded

In February 2020, the Army vice chief of staff said Army modernization was perceptibly speeding up.Expansion depth limit exceeded

This Life Cycle Management (formulated in 2004)Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded was intended to exert the kind of operational control (OPCON)Expansion depth limit exceeded needed just for the sustainment function (AMC's need for Readiness today),Expansion depth limit exceeded rather than for its relevance to modernization for the future. AFC now serves as the deciding authority when moving a project in its Life Cycle, out of the Acquisition phase and into the Sustainment phase.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=g357}}

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Acquisition Executive and the AFC commander created a COVID-19 task force to try to project supplier problems 30, 60, and 90 days out. In 2020, they tracked 800 programs and 35 priorities.Expansion depth limit exceeded

The CFTs must balance requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Some modernization work will be done via the Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and education, Personnel and Facilities (DOTMLPF) framework.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

The plan is to have an MDO-capable Army by 2028{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= lessonsFromRUkr|1= As informed by lessons learned in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine}} and an MDO-ready Army by 2035.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

In 2018, McConville said TRADOC, ASA (ALT), and AFC are tied together.Expansion depth limit exceeded The ASA(ALT) will coordinate the acquisition reform with AFC.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|Para. 1c}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded He also said AFC will have to be "a little bit disruptive" to institute reforms within budget in a timely way.Expansion depth limit exceeded

Congress has given the Army Other Transaction Authority (OTA),Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded which allows the PEOs to enter into Full Rate Production quicker by permitting the services to control their own programs of record, rather than DoD.Expansion depth limit exceeded This strips out one layer of bureaucracy.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Middle tier acquisition authority is another tool.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

There is now a PEO for Rapid Capabilities (RCO) with two program managers, one for rapid prototyping, and one for rapid acquisition, of a capability.Expansion depth limit exceeded Requirements are developed by the Cross-functional team (CFT).Expansion depth limit exceeded In 2019 RCO became the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO).Expansion depth limit exceeded

In 2019, Futures Command was formulating multiyear enterprise campaign plans.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The planning process includes Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs), Futures and Concepts (FCC), Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), and Army Reserve's Houston-based 75th Innovation Command. Pne goal is to formulate the plans in simple, coherent language which nests within the national security strategic documents.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded By October 2022 Field Manual 3-0 said "Multi-domain Operations are at the root of all Army operations".Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|§ 1-11, p.1-3 }}Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 28:09 to 36:00 }}

A goal of AFC is overmatch of the capability of a competitor or adversary, particularly the imposition of multiple simultaneous dilemmas upon a competitor or adversary.Expansion depth limit exceeded By 2021, Army leaders recognized that the multi-domain operations task forceExpansion depth limit exceeded could do so.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|min 30:45}}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=leoLRPFKillChain}}

Planning for the Army of 2040 is underway.Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=g357}}Expansion depth limit exceeded

Futures

File:XM1113 in flight.jpg

XM1113 extended range artillery round, shown here at a range demonstration, uses a rocket-assist motor

Long-range precision fires developments include:{{Expansion depth limit exceeded| name= ccdcAvMcGoals |1= Munitions such as PrSM will need to fire and then move, at targets on the move.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Hypersonic materiel development:Expansion depth limit exceeded the Strategic long range cannon (SLRC), for a hypersonic projectile,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded is meant to have a range up to 1,000 nautical miles.Expansion depth limit exceeded An early ballistic test took place at Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, as announced at AUSA in October 2019.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded SLRC was cancelled in March 2022.Expansion depth limit exceeded Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) development at Picatinny Arsenal: evaluate several manufacturing technologies, tied to the XM1113 munition.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded ERCA was cancelled in March 2024;Expansion depth limit exceeded Gen. Rainey has ceded towed artillery as at its end-of-life.Expansion depth limit exceeded Targeting with thousand-mile missiles,Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded "streamlining the sensor-shooter link at every echelon"—BGExpansion depth limit exceeded John Rafferty,Expansion depth limit exceeded in Integrated fire.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|mobile,ExpeditionaryNetwork}}Mobile & Expeditionary NetworkExpansion depth limit exceeded / MDO Multi-domain operationsExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|A-PNT}}Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT)Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

An A-PNT event was scheduled at WSMR for August 2019{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|pp220-3}}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= asaWsh2018ToC}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|pp220-1}}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= asaWsh2018ToC}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded}}
Prototype jam-resistant GPS kits are being fielded to 2nd Cavalry Regiment in US European Command (EUCOM) before year-end 2019.Expansion depth limit exceeded More than 300 Strykers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment are being fitted with the Mounted Assured Precision Navigation & Timing System (MAPS), with thousands more planned for EUCOM.Expansion depth limit exceeded
A Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) is under development.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

Low Earth orbit satellites for Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing—"When you look at the sheer number of satellites that go up and the reduced cost to do it, it gives us an array of opportunities on how to solve the problems" in A-PNTExpansion depth limit exceeded

ARL researchers have proposed and demonstrated a way for small ground-based robots with mounted antennas to configure phased arrays, a technique which usually takes a static laboratory to develop. Instead the researchers used robots to covertly create and focus a highly directional parasitic array (see Yagi antenna).Expansion depth limit exceeded
ARL's Army Research Office is funding researchers at University of Texas at Austin, and University of Lille who have built a new 5G component using hexagonal boron nitride which can switch at performant speeds, while remaining 50 times more energy-efficient than current materials—the "thinnest known insulator with a thickness of 0.33 nanometers".Expansion depth limit exceeded
ARL's Army Research Office is seeking diamond colloids, microscopic spheres which can assemble bottom-up into promising structures for laser action.Expansion depth limit exceeded
A demonstration of proof of concept allows soldiers to communicate their position using a wearable tracking unit. The technology allows soldiers (or robots) to prosecute a fight even indoors or underground, even if GPS were lost.Expansion depth limit exceeded
{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|airMissileDefense}}Air, Missile Defense:Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded An Integrated Air and Missile Battle Command System (IBCS)Expansion depth limit exceeded award, including next software build.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded of $238 million also funds initial prototypes of the command and control system for fielding in fiscal 2022.Expansion depth limit exceeded
Hypersonic glide vehicle launch preparations,Expansion depth limit exceeded beginning in 2020, and continuing with launches every six months.Expansion depth limit exceeded
At Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, an FVL CFT-sponsored demonstration of interconnected sensors handed off control of a glide munition which had been launched from a Grey Eagle drone. When another group of sensors picked up a higher-priority target, another operator at the Tactical Operations Center redirected the glide munition to the higher-priority targe.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded
Soldier lethality

Network CFT sponsors sensor-to-shooter prototype for multi-domain battle, 2019 operational assessment.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Night vision goggles thermal polarimetric camera.Expansion depth limit exceeded Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS)Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The Synthetic Training Environment (STE) is available to some of the troops outfitted with IVAS.Expansion depth limit exceeded Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said Army work on a common operating picture will be a foundation for joint operations.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded CCDC ARL researchers are developing a flexible, waterproof, lithium-ion battery of any size and shape, for soldiers to wear; the electrolyte is water itself. In 2020 the batteries were engineering prototypes; by 2021 soldiers will wear the battery for themselves for the first time.Expansion depth limit exceeded

CCDC ARL and DoE's PNNL are examining the solid-electrolyte-interphase (SEI) as it first forms during the initial charging of a lithium-ion battery. They have found an inner SEI (thin, dense, and inorganic—most likely lithium oxide) between the copper electrode, and an outer SEI which is organic and permeable—a finding which will be useful when building future batteries.Expansion depth limit exceeded

CCDC ARL and MIT researchers are formulating atomically thin materials to be layered upon soldiers' equipment and clothing for MDO information display and processing.Expansion depth limit exceeded Integrated, wearable cabling for capabilities such as IVAS, Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW), or Nett Warrior are under development;Expansion depth limit exceeded the potential exists to reduce 20 pounds of batteries to half that weight.Expansion depth limit exceeded CCDC ARL is studying additive manufacturing (3D printing) for munitions.Expansion depth limit exceeded Natick Soldier RDEC has awarded an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract to prototype soldier exoskeletons which augment human leg strength under harsh conditions.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

DEVCOM Chem Bio Center (CBC) is developing sensors to detect contaminants.Expansion depth limit exceeded

The Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV)Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded is meant to be airdropped for a squad of nine paratroopers.Expansion depth limit exceeded The GM design was selected; first unit is expected at 1/82nd AB division in February 2021.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded

A-PNT devices are being miniaturized, with more redundant positioning sources.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|pp220-3}}{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name= asaWsh2018ToC }}
In September 2019 in the Maneuver CoE's Battle Lab at Fort Moore, OneSAF simulationsExpansion depth limit exceeded of a platoon augmented by UAS drones, ground robots, and AI were able to dislodge a defending force 3 times larger, repeatedly. But by current doctrine, a near-battalion would have been required to accomplish that mission.Expansion depth limit exceeded

In February 2024 the department of the Air Force announced its intention to create the Space Futures Command.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded The US Air Force is seeking to launch Integrated Capabilities Command by year-end 2024 to set future requirements for the USAF.Expansion depth limit exceeded

List of commanding generals

File:2022 U.S. Army Futures Command Change of Command Ceremony (5).jpg

LTG James E. Rainey assumes command of AFC from LTG James M. Richardson on 4 October 2022.

Lieutenant General John M. Murray became Army Futures Command's first commanding general upon its activation on 24 August 2018.Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded Lieutenant General James E. Rainey (promoted to general on 7 October 2022)Expansion depth limit exceeded became AFC's second commanding general on 4 October 2022.{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|name=g357|1= The CG,AFC is responsible for Force design (in the style of TRADOC's G357,Expansion depth limit exceeded but applied to Force modernization, rather than training).Expansion depth limit exceeded The Army's Force management model begins with a projection of the Future operating environment, in terms of resources: political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure, physical environment, and the time available to bring the Current army to bear on the situation.Expansion depth limit exceeded The AROC serves as a discussion forum of these factors.Expansion depth limit exceeded

The Army G-8 and G-3/5/7 sit on the Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC), chaired by the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA).Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|diagram on p.559}}Expansion depth limit exceededExpansion depth limit exceeded
The relevant strategy is provided by the Army's leadership to guide Army staff.Expansion depth limit exceeded
The resources are "dictated by Congress".Expansion depth limit exceeded
A DOTMLPF analysis models the factors necessary to change the Current force into a relevant Future force.Expansion depth limit exceeded
A JCIDS/ACIDSExpansion depth limit exceeded process identifies the gaps in capability between Current and Future force.
A Force design to meet the materiel gaps is underway.
An organization with the desired capabilities (manpower, materiel, training) is brought to bear on each gap.

AR 5-22(pdf) lists the Force modernization proponent for each Army branch, which can be a CoE or Branch proponent leader. Staff uses Synchronization meetingsExpansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|minute 8:29 }} before seeking approval —HTAR Force Management 3-2b: "Managing change in any large, complex organization requires the synchronization of many interrelated processes".Expansion depth limit exceeded{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|p.3-1}}

A budget request is submitted to Congress.
Approved requests then await resource deliveries which then become available to the combatant commanders.}}

No.	Portrait	Name and rank	Took office	Left office	Term length {{Expansion depth limit exceeded\| order = 1	military_rank = General	image = Gen. John M. Murray.jpg	officeholder = John M. Murray	officeholder_sort =	term_start = 24 August 2018	term_end = 3 December 2021	24 August 2018\|3 December 2021}} }} {{Expansion depth limit exceeded\| order = -	military_rank = Lieutenant General	image = Lt. Gen. James M. Richardson (1).jpg	officeholder = James M. Richardson	officeholder_sort =	term_start = 3 December 2021	term_end = 4 October 2022	3 December 2021\|4 October 2022}}	acting = y }} {{Expansion depth limit exceeded\| order = 2	military_rank = General	image = GEN James E. Rainey.jpg	officeholder = James E. Rainey	officeholder_sort =	term_start = 4 October 2022	4 October 2022}} }}

Employees

Approximately 24,000 (including staff from subordinate commands and cross-functional teams)

Notes

References

External links

{{Expansion depth limit exceeded|https://www.army.mil/futures}}
See AFC Events for the upcoming events: Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 26–28 March 2019: Multi-Domain Operations. Previous event: 8–10 October 2018 {{Expansion depth limit exceeded|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820023812/https://armyfuturescommand.com/events/ |date=20 August 2019 }}