United States Army Futures Command: Difference between revisions

United States Army Futures Command
AFC's shoulder sleeve insignia[1]
Founded	24 August 2018[2]
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army
Type	Army command
Garrison/HQ	Austin, Texas
Motto(s)	"Forge the future"[1]
Website	www.army.mil/futures
Commanders
Commanding general[5]	GEN James E. Rainey[3]
Deputy Commanding Generals[5]	LTG Richard R. Coffman LTG D. Scott McKean[4]
Command Sergeant Major[5]	CSM Brian A. Hester
Deputy to the Commander[5]	SES William "Willie" Nelson
Insignia
Distinctive unit insignia[1]
Beret flash

The United States Army Futures Command (AFC) is a United States Army command that runs modernization projects^[a] for the Army. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

The AFC was began initial operations on 1 July 2018.^[6] It was created as a peer of Forces Command (FORSCOM), Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), and Army Materiel Command (AMC).^[7][8] While the other commands focus on readiness to "fight tonight", AFC aims to improve future readiness for competition with near-peers.^[9][10][11]

It is supported by the United States Army Reserve Innovation Command (75th Innovation Command).^[12]

General Mark Milley, then Army Chief of Staff, helped establish the Army Futures Command.^[13] Its first commander was by General John Murray,^[14] formerly the Army's G-8.^[a]

Over his four-year term as the Army's chief of staff, Milley, working with top service officials, shifted billions of dollars into modernization programs and based the new command in Austin, Texas, an area known for its innovative, technology-focused workforce. [1] 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:^{[Note 1]} Long-range precision fires, Next Generation Combat Vehicle, Future Vertical Lift platforms, a mobile & expeditionary Army network, air and missile defense capabilities,^[15] and soldier lethality.

Murray announced plans to stand up an Army Applications Lab^{[Note 2]} to accelerate acquisition and deployment of materiel to the soldiers, including by using artificial intelligence (AI). ^[16][17]

Murray also said he would hire a chief technology officer for AFC.^[18][19]

A fundamental strategy was formulated, involving simultaneous integrated operations across domains.^[20][21] This strategy involves pushing adversaries to standoff,^{[b] [24][23]} by presenting them with multiple simultaneous dilemmas.^[25][26][c] A goal is that by 2028, the ability to project rapid, responsive power across domains will have become apparent to potential adversaries.^[27][28][d]

AFC declared its full operational capability in July 2019,^[29][30] after an initial one-year period.^[31] The FY2020 military budget allocated $30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over next five years.^[32] The $30 billion came from $8 billion in cost avoidance and $22 billion in terminations.^[32][33] More than 30 projects^[34][35] were envisioned to become the materiel basis needed for overmatching any potential competitors in the 'continuum of conflict' over the next ten years^[36][37] in multi-domain operations (MDO).^[38]

From an initial 12 people at its headquarters in 2018, AFC grew to 24,000 people across 25 states and 15 countries in 2019.^[39] 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.^[40]

In 2022, Army leaders projected that 24 of the top-35 priority modernization programs would be deployed by fiscal 2023.^[41]

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth announced the top six areas for the Army of 2030:^{[42][43]: minute 43:30} 1) improved intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; 2) "Coordination at greater speed";^[c] 3) "Win the Fires fight"; 4) concealment^[44][45] via improved mobility and reduced signature; 5) "talk often and quickly";^[46][e] and 6) logistics.^{[42][47][27][28] [48][49] [50] [51]}

In October 2022, Wormuth assigned AFC to work on "Army of 2040" concepts.^{[a][52][43]: minute 51:00 [47][53][54]} Two months later, Futures Command hosted a conference with representatives from AMC, TRADOC, FORSCOM, and Headquarters Department of the Army.^{[55][55][55][56][57][58]} AFC is leading the development of a new Army Operating Concept (v. 1.0) for the Army of 2030 to 2040.^{[59][60][59][a]}

In 2018, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy said Futures Command would have three areas of focus:^[64]

1. Futures and Concepts: assess gaps (needs versus opportunities,^[65] given a threat).^[64] Concepts for realizable future systems (with readily harvestable content)^{[66][67]: for definitions of terms, such as '6.3'} will flow into TRADOC doctrine, manuals, and training programs.^[a]
2. Combat Development: stabilized concepts.^[66][67] 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.^[68][g][h] (See Value stream)
3. Combat Systems: experiments, demonstrations, and prototypes.^[69] Transition to the acquisition, production, and sustainment programs of AMC.^[70][i][f]

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.^[74] What has changed or will change is the layers of command (operational control, or OPCON)^[75] needed to make a decision.^[74] He said, "You've got to remain open to change, you've got to remain flexible, you've [got] to remain accessible. That is the purpose of this command."^[74][76] See § Army of 2040

The command uses cross-functional teams to reform the acquisition process.^[77][78]

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.^[10] By 2021, Army leaders recognized that the multi-domain operations task force^[79] could do so.^{[80]: min 30:45 [c]} In 2023 a new CFT was stood up for Contested Logistics.^[50][81] Planning^[a][82] for the Army of 2040 is underway.^[59]

McCarthy characterized a Cross-Functional Team (CFT) as a team of teams, led by a requirements leader, program manager, sustainer and tester.^[83] 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.^[84] The Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC) itself serves as a kind of CFT,^[a] operating at a higher level^{[85][86][87][88][89][90]} as response to Congressional oversight, budgeting, funding, policy, and authorization for action.^{[66][67][91][92][93][94][95]}

CFTs for materiel and capabilities were first structured in a task force.^[84][96] Each CFT addresses a capability gap, which the Army must now match for its future: there can be a Capability Development Integration Directorate (CDID), for each CFT.^{[Note 1]} The Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, in coordination with the Aviation Program Executive Officer (PEO), also contains the Vertical Lift CFT and the Aviation CDID. Modernization reform is the priority for AFC, in order to achieve readiness for the future.

The CFTs will be involved in all three of AFC's elements: Futures and concepts, Combat development, and Combat systems.^[97] "We were never above probably a total of eight people" —BG Wally Rugen, Aviation CFT.^[98] Four of the eight CFT leads have now shifted from dual-hat jobs to full-time status. Each CFT lead is mentored by a 4-star general.^[98]

AFC and the CFTs are expected to unify control of the Army' s $30 billion modernization budget.^[99][30]

Murray embedded U.S. military allies into some of the CFTs.^[100][30]

The Secretaries of the Army, Air Force, and Navy meet regularly to take advantage of overlap in their programs:^{[107][108][82]}

Multi-Domain Operations (MDO); Joint warfighting concept (JADC2)

• Multi-Domain Operations (MDO):^{[f][j][21][109][110][111]} Joint planning and operations are also part of the impending DoD emphasis on multi-domain operations.^{[10][112][113][114][115]} Multi-domain battalions,^[k] first stood up in 2019,^{[116][117][118]} comprise a single unit^[119][120] for air, land,^[121] space,^{[122][123][124][125]}—and cyber^[126][127] domains.^{[128][107][127]} A hypersonic-based battery similar to a THAAD battery is under consideration for this type of battalion,^[129][130] possibly denoted a strategic fires battalion^{[131][132][133]} (however I2CEWS support would likely be needed),^[k] depending on the theater. In 2019, as part of a series of globally integrated exercises, these capabilities were analyzed.^{[20][134][135]} Using massive simulation^[110][136] the need for a §new kind of command and control (now denoted JADC2) to integrate this firepower was explored.^[121][137]
  • The ability to punch-through any standoff defense of a near-peer competitor is the goal which Futures Command is seeking.^{[22][23][138][139]} For example, the combination of F-35-based targeting coordinates, Long range precision fires, and Low-earth-orbit satellite^[140] capability overmatches the competition, according to Lt. Gen. Wesley.^{[141] [c]} Critical decisions to meet this goal will be decided by data from the results of the Army's ongoing tests of the prototypes under development.^[138][142]
  • For example, in Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF), the director of the LRPF CFT envisions one application as an anti-access/area denial (A2AD) probe; this spares resources from the other services;^[143] by firing a munition with a thousand-mile range at an adversary, LRPF would force an adversary to respond, which exposes the locations of its countermeasures, and might even expose the location of an adversary force's headquarters. In that situation an adversary's headquarters would not survive for long, and the adversary's forces would be subject to defeat in detail. But LRPF is only one part of the strategy of overmatch by a Combatant commander.
  • In August–September 2020. at Yuma Proving Ground, the US Army engaged in a five-week exercise to rapidly merge capabilities in multiple-domains. The exercise prototyped a ground tactical Network, pushing it to its limits of robustness^[144] (as of 2020, 36 miles on the ground, and demonstrated 1500-mile capability above the ground, with kill chains measured in seconds) in the effort to penetrate anti-access/area denial (A2AD) with long-range fires. Longer-range fires are under development, ranging from hundreds of miles to over 1000 miles, with yearly iterations of Project Convergence being planned.^[145]
    • MDO (multi-domain operations) and JADC2 (joint all-domain command and control) thus entails: ^[c]
      1. Penetrate phase: satellites detect enemy shooters
      2. Dis-integrate phase: airborne assets remove enemy long range fires
      3. Kinetic effect phase: Army shooters, using targeting data from aircraft and other sensors, fire on enemy targets.^[146]
    • 40th Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville discussed the combination of MDO^[j] and JADC2 with 22nd Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown.^[144] In October 2020 the Chiefs agreed that Futures Command, and the Air Force's A5 office will lead a two-year collaboration 'at the most "basic levels" by defining mutual standards for data sharing and service interfacing' in the development of Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2).^[147][82]
      • The ability of the joint services to send data from machine to machine was exercised in front of several of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in April 2021; this is a prerequisite capability for Convergence of MDO and JADC2.^{[148][149][150]}
• In July 2022 the 7th ASA(ALT) Doug Bush called for the formation of a large office on the scale of the Joint Counter-small UAS office, but for JADC2.^[151] This would coordinate,^[152] and eventually reconcile requirements for JADC2 for Army's Project Convergence, the Navy's Project Overmatch and the Air Force's Advanced Battle Management System.^{[151][153][154][155]} See CDAO
• In July 2022 Army Test and Evaluation Command called for more digital twinning and modeling and simulation,^[156] as end-to-end tests become more comprehensive, expensive, and larger-scale;^[151] as the scale of an exercise increases, a Synthetic Training Environment (STE) can be used to cut costs.^[157]

AFC has given research funding to more than 300 colleges and universities^[30] with one-year program cycles.^[158] "We will come to you. You don't have to come to us," Murray said on 24 August 2018"^{[31]: minute 6:07},^[159]

Multiple incubator tech hubs are available in Austin,^[160] especially Capital Factory, with offices of Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and AFWERX (USAF tech hub).^[161]

AI

• § Robotic combat vehicles (RCVs) have an updated guideline —DoDD 3000.09 (2023).^[162]
• Disinformation at scale appears to be AI-generated, in 2021.^{[163][164][d]}
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Modernization^[165][166]—The 23rd Secretary of the Army directed the establishment of an Army AI Task Force (A-AI TF) to support the DoD Joint AI center. The execution order will be drafted and staffed by Futures Command:^[16][167]
• The Army Applications Laboratory^{[Note 2]} was established in 2018, along with the stand-up of the Army Futures Command, to act as a concierge service across the Army's Future Force Modernization Enterprise and the broader commercial marketplace of ideas.
  • Army AI task force^[168][169] (its relationship with the CFTs is cross-cutting, in the same sense as the Assured Position, Navigation, Timing (A-PNT) CFT and the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) CFT are also cross-cutting) will use the resources of the Army to establish scalable machine learning projects at Carnegie Mellon University
  • the Army CIO/G-6 will create an Identity, Credential, and Access Management system to efficiently issue and verify credentials to non-person entities (AI agents and machines)^[170]
  • 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.^[171][172] Funding will be assured for the Fiscal Year 2019.^[107][173]
    • A Global Network to counter cyber attacks, much like Five Eyes, is the recommendation for multi-domain operations (MDO), which is unified to present a synoptic view of any cyber operation to all the combatant commands simultaneously.^{[174][127][175][135]} 'Decision dominance' is a tenet of the 'Joint warfighting concept'.^{[176][20][177]}
      • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) AlphaDogfight: Trials of eight AI teams, which began learning how to fly in September 2019. In August 2020 the eight AI agents faced each other, in a series of simulated fights. The simulations included the g-forces which limit a human (accelerations greater than 9 g's will cause most forward-facing human pilots to black out— AI agents are not subject to these human constraints). The champion AI agent eventually met a human General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter pilot in simulated combat on 20 August 2020.^[178] On 20 August 2020, the champion AI agent consistently defeated a human F-16 pilot in a series of dogfights.^[179]
      • DoD's Joint AI Center (JAIC) is providing a Joint Common Foundation, a cloud-based AI toolkit for any DoD organization (viz., Futures Command) to use.^[180] JAIC is seeking to curate the flood of data at DoD^[181][66] to allow systematic, reliable datasets which are usable for machine learning.^[182]
      • Adaptive Distributed Allocation of Probabilistic Tasks (ADAPT) is a DARPA model for testing AI-to-human communication in a toy environment.^[183]
• In 2021 DoD is requesting 600 separate AI efforts for FY2022 ($874 million) as opposed to 400 AI efforts for FY2021.^[184] The Army is using machine learning to extract targeting data from satellite sensors for its JADC2 effort.^[184][185]
  • 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").^[186]
• By 2023 the Department of Defense was seeking a Technical Baseline which remains vendor-free, in order to exploit the Large language model (LLM) of AI.^[187][188]

Software

Futures Command will stand up Army Software Factory in August 2021, to immerse Soldiers and Army civilians of all ranks in modern software development, in Austin.^{[189][190][191][192][193]} Similar in spirit to 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.^[189] The Al Work Force Development program and this Software Factory will complement the Artificial Intelligence Task Force.^[190][194]

• Tapping in to its personnel system, the Army has identified soldiers who can already code at Ph.D.-level, but who are in unexpected MOSs.^[195] A Senate bill to formalize and recognize skills such as "computer programming skills, which include technical and nontechnical skills related to artificial intelligence and coding" was introduced in March 2023.^[196]
• In March 2023 the Marine Corps co-located its software factory with the Army software factory in Austin, Texas.^[197]

AFC is seeking to design signature systems in a relevant time frame according to priorities^{[Note 1]} of the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA).^[97] AFC will partner with other organizations such as Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) as needed.^[198][199] If a team from industry presents a viable program idea to a CFT, that CFT connects to the Army's requirements developers, Secretary Esper said, and the program prototype is then put on a fast track.^[71] The Secretary of the Army has approved an Intellectual Property Management Policy, to protect both the Army and the entrepreneur or innovator.^[200][201]

Data

For example, the Network CFT and the Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications—Tactical (PEO C3T) hosted a forum on 1 August 2018 for vendors to learn what might function as a testable/deployable^[202] in the near future.^{[203][126][204]} A few of the hundreds of white papers from the vendors, adjudged to be 'very mature ideas', were passed to the Army's acquisition community, while many others were passed to United States Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) for continuation in the Army's effort to modernize the network for combat.^[205] Although some test requirements were inappropriately applied, the Command post computing environment (CPCE) has passed a hurdle.^{[206][207][208]}

While seeking information, the Army is especially interested in ideas that accelerate an acquisition program —in for example the Future Vertical Lift Requests for Information (RFIs): "provide a detailed description of tailored, alternative or innovative approaches that streamlines the acquisition process to accelerate the program as much as possible" (4 April 2019);^[209] in January 2020 the current Optionally manned fighting vehicle (OMFV) solicitation was cancelled when the OMFV's requirements added up to an unobtainable project;^[210] in February 2020 Futures command was soliciting the industry for do-able ideas for an OMFV,^[210] whereas in August 2022 Army Network modernization was the target for being speeded-up.^[211]

Search for capabilities

In the Army's search for capabilities, 6th ASA(ALT) Bruce Jette initiated xTechsearch to reward private innovators.^[212] The program is ongoing.^[l]

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the Army to run an xTechsearch Ventilator Challenge; entrants can submit their ideas online for immediate consideration and a possible cash prize to encourage participation for a $100,000 prize and possible Army contract.^[214] In 1964 Henrik H. Straub of Harry Diamond Labs, a predecessor to CCDC Army Research Laboratory, invented the Army Emergency Respirator (now termed a 'ventilator' in current terminology).^[215] This ventilator is one application of the fluidic amplifier (a 1957 Harry Diamond Labs invention), which allows the labored breathing of the patient to control the flow from an externally purified air stream, to augment the air flow into a patient's lungs.^[215]

TRX Systems won an xTechsearch award for technology which allows navigation in a GPS-denied environment, an A-PNT priority. The award was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed the company more time for business development.^[216]

Air-launched effects (ALEs)

Air-launched effects (ALEs) are drones which are launched from the Army's helicopters.^[217] In swarms, ALEs promise to multiply the combat effectiveness of the Army's helicopters;^[217] single ground-launched drones have already been used in combat during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. ALEs have been used as munitions, as in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts.^[218][219] From 1 May to 18 May 2023 at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) the Aviation CFT made progress in its effort to share data with its partners; the event concentrated on the data-sharing necessary to support JADC2 at the scale needed to support the distances encountered in the Indo-Pacom theater; this extends the reach of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA).^[220]

Robotic combat vehicles (RCVs)

In 2021 candidate Robotic combat vehicles (RCVs), both medium and light RCVs, along with surrogate heavy RCVs (modified M-113s) and proxy manned control vehicles (MET-Ds) were to marshal at Camp Grayling MI to test a company-sized tele-operated / unmanned formation.^[224] The light RCVs had their autonomous driving software installed in November and December 2020.^[224] The robotic vehicle formation begins a shakeout in April 2021. The RCVs (and the software, which is common to all 18 vehicles) enters ATEC (Army Test and Evaluation Command) safety testing through May 2022.^[224] Live-fire drills are scheduled to conclude in August 2022.^[224][138] By October 2021 experiments with RCVs, in concert with drones for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), were underway.^{[225][223][219]}

By June 2022 Army RCVs had demonstrated some of their disruptive capabilities,^[221] in preparation for Project Convergence 2022. Autonomous capabilities, for example in resupply by unmanned helicopters, by the US, Australia, and UK were demonstrated at PC22.^{[226]: min 25:30 [227][228][229]}

In May 2023 Army Futures Command disclosed concepts for Robotic combat platoons,^[230] akin to the Collaborative combat aircraft of the Air Force. These robotics concepts integrate the ethics policies^[231][232] of the Defense Department as part of mission command.^[233] See §Internet of Military Things

By 13 October 2021 the 40th Chief of Staff of the Army could announce that the majority of the Army's Futures Command's 31 signature systems,^[234] and the four rapid capability projects of the § Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office would be fielded by fiscal year 2023 (FY2023)^[235][g][h]

By 2022, Futures Command was conducting the third annual iteration of Project Convergence (PC22), experiments and joint tests of 300 technologies by the Department of Defense and its allies and partners.^{[155][250][251]} The next Project Convergence is likely to be PC24 at the earliest.^[252][253] In addition the RCCTO's § LRHW^[236] will not deploy by 1 October 2023.

See United States Army Acquisition Corps

Futures Command partners with the ASA(ALT),^[254][78] who, in the role of the Army Acquisition Executive (AAE),^[255] has milestone decision authority (MDA)^[69][256] at multiple points in a Materiel development decision (MDD).^[257] Thus, from the perspective of AFC, which seeks to modernize, they consolidate the relevant expertise into the relevant CFT. The CFT balances the constraints needed to realize a prototype, beginning with realizable requirements, science and technology, test, etc. before entering 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).^[258] 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.^[258] 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:^{[255][257][66]} over 1200 programs/projects were reviewed;^[259] by October 2019, over 600 programs of record have been moved from the acquisition (development for modernization) phase to the sustainment phase (for mature projects, to continue their manufacture and fielding to the brigades).^[259] An additional life cycle management action is underway, to re-examine which of these projects/programs should be divested.^[259] (Surplus materiel might well go to the Security Assistance Command, perhaps to Foreign Military Sales.)

The emphasis remains with Futures Command, which selects programs to develop.^[259] In order to achieve its mission of achieving overmatch,^{[260][109][65]} each Futures Command CFT partners with the acquisition community.^[261] This community (the Army acquisition workforce (AAW)) includes an entire Army branch (the Acquisition Corps),^{[262][263][264][265][266]} U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC), Army Contracting Command, .^[257] The Principal Military Deputy to the ASA(ALT) is also deputy commanding general for Combat Systems, Army Futures Command,^[255] 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.^[267]

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....aligned under that same commander. ... We will finally achieve… unity of command —Secretary Esper.^[64]

The PEOs work closely with their respective CFTs.^[261] The list of CFTs and PEOs below is incomplete.^{[Note 1]} Operationally, the CFTs offer "de-layering" (fewer degrees of separation between the echelons of the Army—Rugen estimates two degrees of separation),^[98] and provide a point of contact (POC) for Army reformers^[65] interested in adding value in the midst of constraints to be balanced while modernizing.^[98] "... and if we're really good, we'll continue to adapt. Year over year over year." —Secretary Esper^{[31]: minute 19:00 [268]} (See Value stream.)

"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." —Secretary of the Army Mark Esper.^[269][h] The development process will be cyclic,^[270] consisting of prototype, demonstration/testing, and evaluation,^[71] in an iterative process designed to unearth unrealistic requirements early, before prematurely including that requirement in a program of record.^[30][256]

AFC activities include at least one Cross-functional team, its Capability development integration directorate (CDID),^{[271]: Para. 2b} and the associated Battle Lab,^{[271]: Para. 2b} for each (Army Center of Excellence (CoE)) respectively. Each CDID and associated Battle Lab work with their CFT^[76] to develop operational experiments and prototypes to test.

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 who is charged with developing experimental prototype 'units of action' for rapid fielding to the Soldiers. The prototypes are currently for Long range hypersonic weapons, High energy laser defense, and Space, as of June 2019,^{[272][273][274]} Speed and range are the Army capabilities which are being augmented,^{[275][276][132][277]} with spending on these capabilities tripling between 2017 and 2019.^[278]

Tests are run by JMC and White Sands Missile Range, which hosts ATEC.^[279] As United States Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) reports directly to the Army Chief of Staff,^[8] the test support level from ATEC^[280] is to be specified by the CFT,^[76] or PEO.^[281] Fort Bliss and WSMR together cover 3.06 million acres, large enough to test every non-nuclear weapon system in the Army inventory.^{[282]: minute 1:26:00} JMC runs live developmental experiments to test and assess MDO concepts or capabilities that support the Army's six modernization priorities which are then analyzed by The Research and Analysis Center, denoted TRAC based out of Fort Leavenworth,^[76] or AMSAA, denoted the Data Analysis Center at APG. CCDC, now called DEVCOM (formerly RDECOM, at APG) includes the several Army research laboratory locations (ARLs),^[283] as well as research, development and engineering centers (RDECs) listed:^{[271][76][268]}

In internal partnerships, CCDC, now called DEVCOM (formerly RDECOM) has taken Long range precision fires (LRPF) as its focus in aligning its organizations (the six research, development and engineering centers (RDECs), and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL)); as of September 2018, RDECOM's 'concept of operation' is first to support the LRPF CFT,^[284] 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 (ERCA) that save on size and weight.^[284] Two dedicated RDECOM people support the LRPF CFT, with reachback support from two dozen more at RDECOM.^[285] In January 2019 RDECOM was reflagged as CCDC; General Mike 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.^[286][268]

Although the Army Research Laboratory has not changed its name, Secretary Esper notes that the CCDC objectives supersede the activities of the Laboratory;^[76][66][67] the Laboratory remains in its support role for the top-six priorities for modernizing combat capabilities.^{[Note 1]}

Acquisition specialists are being encouraged to accept lateral transfers to the several research, development and engineering centers (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, MA), and Armaments center (formerly ARDEC, at Picatinny Arsenal) listed below.^[287]

This section may contain an excessive number of citations. Please help remove low-quality or irrelevant citations. (December 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The following activities for Futures Command are at 23 locations.^[292] (A US Army center of excellence (CoE), or TRADOC Center of Excellence, can be co-located near a CFT, along with the associated Capability Development Integration Directorate (CDID) and "Battle Lab") The interrelation between AFC and TRADOC can be seen by the role of a TRADOC Capability manager, who is responsible for DOTMLPF, and reports to the TRADOC commander.^[m]

• AFC HQ, Austin TX^{[30][293][31][109][294]}
• AFSG Army Future Studies Group,^[66][67] 2530 Crystal Dr, Arlington, VA 22202
• Futures and Concepts Center of AFC,^[295] formerly ARCIC Fort Eustis VA
• JMC Joint Modernization Command,^[161] Fort Bliss, which is contiguous to WSMR
• White Sands Missile Range NM,^[279] also houses ARL,^[296] TRAC,^[297] and Army Test and Evaluation Command.^{[282]: minute 1:19:00}
• FT LVN Operations research: Mission Command Battle Lab,^{[298][299][300][301][110]} Capability development integration directorate (CDID),^[302] The Research Analysis Center (TRAC), formerly TRADOC Analysis Center,^[297][303] Fort Leavenworth KS
  • CFT: Synthetic Training Environment (STE):^{[304][157][305]} The HQ for STE has opened in Orlando (28 January 2019).^{[306][307][308][70]: p.27 [i]}
• CCOE Cyber CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),^[309] Fort Gordon GA
  • CFT: Mobile and Expeditionary Network^[202]
• MCOE Maneuver CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),^[310] Fort Benning GA
  • CFT: Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV)^[311]
  • CFT: Soldier Lethality
• AVNCOE Aviation CoE - (its CDID),^[312][139] at Fort Rucker
  • CFT: Future Vertical Lift (FVL)
• FCOE Fires CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),^{[313][314][315][316][317]} Doctrine updates to support strategic fires^[318][319] Fort Sill OK
  • CFT: Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF)^[276][315]
  • CFT: Air and Missile Defense
• ICOE Intelligence CoE - (its CDID),^[320] Fort Huachuca AZ
• MSCOE Maneuver Support CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),^[321] Fort Leonard Wood MO
• SCOE Sustainment CoE - (its CDID),^[322] Fort Lee VA
• APG^[323][324] Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen MD, also houses Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC, now called DEVCOM),^[325] formerly RDECOM, Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA), and C5ISR center^{[326][327][328]} (the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center was formerly CERDEC)
  • CFT: Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT)^{[326][329][330][331]}
  • CFT: Network CFT (N-CFT)^[323]: p.5
  • CFT: Long Range Precision Fires,^[284]
• CCDC Armaments Center (formerly Armament research, development and engineering center—ARDEC), Picatinny Arsenal, PEO AMMO, and the Cross Functional Team for Long Range Precision Fires
  • 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 AL^[332]
  • CFT: Air and Missile Defense
• CCDC Soldier Center^[333] (formerly Natick Soldier research, development and engineering center—NSRDEC), General Greene Ave, Natick, MA
• Army Research Laboratory (ARL),^{[334][335][336][291]} Adelphi MD
• ARL-Orlando Army Research Laboratory,^{[306][307][70]: p.27 [i]} Orlando FL
• ARL West, Playa Vista^[337] CA
• ARL-RTP Army Research Laboratory, Raleigh-Durham NC
• AI task force at Carnegie-Mellon University^[165][76]

Between 1995 and 2009, $32 billion was expended on programs such as the Future Combat System^[338] (2003-2009), with no harvestable content by the time of its cancellation.^[339] As of 2021, the Army had not fielded a new combat system in decades.^{[340][114][341][342][36][256]}

23rd Secretary of the Army Mark Esper has remarked that AFC will provide the unity of command and purpose needed to reduce the requirements definition phase from 60 months to 12 months.^[343][9][75] A simple statement of a problem (rather than a full-blown requirements definition) that the Army is trying to address may suffice for a surprising, usable solution. —General Mike Murray, paraphrasing Trae Stephens^{[344]: minute 41:50 [345]} (One task will be to quantify the lead time for identifying a requirement; the next task would then be to learn how to reduce that lead time.—Gap analysis )^{[31]: minute 11:00 [346][347][268]} Process changes are expected.^[346][66] The development process will be cyclic, consisting of prototype, demonstration/testing, and evaluation, in an iterative process designed to unearth unrealistic requirements early, before prematurely including that requirement in a program of record. The 6th ASA(ALT) Bruce Jette^[261] has cautioned the acquisition community to 'call-out' unrealistic processes which commit a program to a drawn-out failure,^[348] rather than failing early, and seeking another solution.^[349]

Esper scrubbed through 800^[350] modernization programs to reprioritize funding^[351] for the top six modernization priorities,^[99] which will consume 80% of the modernization funding,^[352] of 18 systems.^[352] The "night court" budget review process realigned $2.4 billion for modernization away from programs which were not tied to modernization or to the 2018 National Defense Strategy.^[353]

Realistically, budget considerations will restrict the fielding of new materiel to one Armor BCT per year;^[354] at that rate, updates would take decades.^[354][355]

The CIO/G6 has targeted Futures Command (Austin) in 2019 as the first pilot for "enterprise IT-as-a-service"-style service contracts; In July 2019, Murray now (July 2019) has a sensitive compartmented information facility in his headquarters, as a result of this pilot.^[29]

In February 2020, the Army vice chief of staff said Army modernization was perceptibly speeding up.^[356]

This Life Cycle Management (formulated in 2004)^[357][358] was intended to exert the kind of operational control (OPCON)^[75] needed just for the sustainment function (AMC's need for Readiness today),^[348] rather than for its relevance to modernization for the future, which is the focus of AFC. 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.^{[259][256][a]}

During to 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.^[359]

The CFTs,^{[Note 1]} must balance requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment.^[84][83]

TRADOC's Mission Command CoE uses the Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and education, Personnel and Facilities (DOTMLPF) method of mission planning.^[75][360] DOTMLPF will be used for modernization of the Army beyond materiel alone, which (as of 2019) is the current focus of the CFTs.^[361][301] The updated modernization strategy, to move from concept to doctrine as well, will be unveiled by summer 2019.^[361] DOTMLPF (doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities) itself is planned as a driver for modernization.^[9][361] The plan is to have an MDO-capable Army by 2028,^[d] and an MDO-ready Army by 2035.^[361][113]

In 2018, McConville said TRADOC, ASA (ALT), and AFC are tied together in this process.^[362] The ASA(ALT) will coordinate the acquisition portion of modernization reform with AFC.^{[271]: Para. 1c [78][256]} He also said AFC will have to be "a little bit disruptive [but not upsetting to the existing order]" in order to institute reforms within budget in a timely way.^[363]

Congress has given the Army Other Transaction Authority (OTA),^{[364][Note 2]} 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.^[267] This strips out one layer of bureaucracy as of 2018.^{[267][365][137]} MTA (middle tier acquisition authority) is another tool available to Program Managers and Contracting Officers.^[366][367]

Besides the AFC CFTS, the Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC)^{[368][369][370]} could also play a part in acquisition reform;^[371][372] as of September 2018 the Deputy Chief of Staff G-8 (DCS G-8), who leads AROC and JROC (Joint Requirements Oversight Council) has aligned with the priorities of AFC.^[373] The DCS G-8 is principal military advisor to the ASA (FM&C).^[255]

In addition, the Program Executive Officers (PEOs) of ASA (ALT) are to maintain a dotted-line relationship^{[Note 1]} (i.e., coordination) with Futures Command.^[261][64]

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.^[374] Requirements are developed by the Cross-functional team (CFT).^[375] In 2019 RCO became the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO)^[376].

The AFC's Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) CFT aims to "deliver cutting-edge surface-to-surface (SSM) fires systems that will significantly increase range and effects over currently fielded US and adversary systems."^[377]

In 2018, its five major programs were:

• The Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) program which develops a system capable of firing accurately at targets beyond 70 km as opposed to the M109A7's 30 km current range^[n]
• The Precision Strike Mission (PrSM) which is a precision-strike guided SSM fired from the M270A1 MLRS and M142 HIMARS doubling the present rate-of-fire with two missiles per launch pod^[o]
• The Strategic Long-Range Cannon (SLRC) program, which would have developed a system that could have fired a hypersonic projectile up to 1,000 miles against air defense, artillery, missile systems, and command and control targets^[131] was terminated 23 May 2022.^[379]
• The Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) is a collaborative program between the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Missile Defense Agency (MDA) which is planned to become the base of the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) program^{[380][381][382]}
• A ground-launchable UGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, as well as the SM-6 (RIM-174 Standard ERAM) to fill the gap in the Army's mid-range missile capabilities^[383][384] has been delivered to RCCTO.^[385]

The kill chains will take less than 1 minute, from detection of the target, to execution of the fires command;^[386] these operations will have the capability to precisely strike "command centers, air defenses, missile batteries, and logistics centers" nearly simultaneously.^{[387][p][389][390]}

• The speed of battle damage assessment will depend on the travel time of the munition. This capability depends on the ability of a specialized CFT, Assured precision navigation and timing (APNT) to provide detail.^{[102][103][104][391]}
  1. Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF): Howitzer artillery ranges have doubled, in excess of 60 km (37 mi) , with accuracy within 1 meter of the aimpoint,^[392] currently with sufficient accuracy to intercept cruise missiles, as of September 2020, reaching the 43 mile range as of December 2020.^[393]
  2. Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs) can reach in excess of 150 miles,^[394] with current 2020 tests^[o]
  3. Mid-range capability (MRC) fires can reach in excess of 500 to 1000 miles,^[383] using mature Navy missiles^{[397][398][237][79]}
  4. Long-Range Hypersonic Weapons (LRHWs) are to have a range greater than 1725 miles.^[399][380]

The current M109A6 "Paladin" howitzer range is doubled in the M109A7 variant.^{[400]: minute 3:07 [401]} An operational test of components of the Long range cannon was scheduled for 2020.^[402] The LRC is complementary to Extended range cannon artillery (ERCA),^[402][403] the M1299 Extended Range Cannon Artillery howitzer.^[404] Baseline ERCA is to enter service in 2023.^{[405][392][406]} Investigations for ERCA in 2025: rocket-boosted artillery shells:^[284] Tests of the Multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) XM30 rocket shell have demonstrated a near-doubling of the range of the munition, using the Tail controlled guided multiple launch rocket system, or TC-G.^[407] The TRADOC capability manager (TCM) Field Artillery Brigade - DIVARTY has been named a command position.^[m]

• An autoloader for ERCA's 95-pound shells is under development at Picatinny Arsenal,^[404] to support a sustained firing rate of 10 rounds a minute ^[392][408] A robotic vehicle for carrying the shells is a separate effort at Futures Command's Army Applications Lab.^[404][409]
• The Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is intended to replace the Army Tactical Missile System (MGM-140 ATACMS) in 2023.^[284] PrSM flight testing is delayed beyond 2 August 2019, the anticipated date for the expiration of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which set 499 kilometer limits on intermediate-range missiles.^[410] (David Sanger and Edward Wong projected that the earliest test of a longer range missile could be a ground-launched version of a Tomahawk cruise missile,^[411] followed by a test of a mobile ground launched IRBM with a range of 1800–2500 miles before year-end 2019.^[411][412]) The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)^[413] was approved on 9 December 2019, which allowed the Pentagon to continue testing such missiles in FY2020.^[414] The Lockheed PrSM prototype had its first launch on 10 December 2019 at White Sands Missile Range, in a 150-mile test, and an overhead detonation; the Raytheon PrSM prototype was delayed from its planned November launch,^[394] and Raytheon has now withdrawn from the PrSM risk reduction phase.^[415] The PrSM's range and accuracy, the interfaces to HIMARS launcher, and test software, met expectations.^[394][416] PrSM passed Milestone B on 1 October 2021.^[417] Baseline PrSM is to enter service in 2023;^[418] an upgraded version of PrSM, with multi-mode seekers will then be sought.^[419] The Army needs PrSM Increment 2 for INDOPACOM.^{[420][405][o]}
• For targets beyond the PrSM's range, the Army's RCCTO will seek a mid-range missile prototype by 2023, with a reach from 1000 to 2000 miles.^{[421][422][237][423]} Loren Thompson points out that a spectrum of medium-range to long-range weapons will be available to the service by 2023;^[424] RCCTO's prototype Mid-Range Capability (MRC) battery will field mature Navy missiles, likely for the Indo-Pacific theater in FY2023.^[383][237] DARPA is developing OpFires, an intermediate-range hypersonic weapon which is shorter-range than the Army's LRHW. DARPA is seeking a role in the armory for OpFires' throttle-able rocket motor, post-2023.^[425][426] DARPA announced in July 2022 it successfully tested its OpFires hypersonic weapon at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) for the first time.^[427] The OpFires launch was from a Marine Corps logistics truck.^[428] OpFires will "rapidly and precisely engage critical, time-sensitive targets while penetrating modern enemy air defenses", potentially to be launched from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher.^[427] These weapons will likely require planning for new Army (or Joint) formations.
• The Long range hypersonic weapons (LRHWs) will use precision targeting data against anti-access area denial (A2AD) radars and other critical infrastructure of near-peer competitors by 2023.^[429][137] LRHW does depend on stable funding.^{[430][431][432][433][380]}
  • Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) 7.0 is the vehicle for a Multi-domain task force's artillery battery very similar to a THAAD battery: beginning in 2020, these batteries will train for a hypersonic glide vehicle which is common to the Joint forces.^[129] The Long range hypersonic weapon (LRHW)^[429] glide vehicle is to be launched from transporter erector launchers.^{[129][434][432]} Tests of the Common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) to be used by the Army and Navy were meeting expectations in 2020.^[130][380]
  • In August 2020 the director of Assured precision navigation and timing (APNT) CFT announced tests which integrate the entire fires kill chain, from initial detection to final destruction. William B. Nelson announced the flow of satellite data from the European theater (Germany), and AI processing of AFATDS targeting data to the fires units.^{[103][104][435]}
    • In September 2020 an AI kill chain was formulated in seconds; a hypervelocity (speeds up to Mach 5) munition,^[436] launched from a descendant of the Paladin, intercepted a cruise missile surrogate.^[437]
  • Three flight tests of LRHW were scheduled in 2021;^[438] that plan was changed to one test in late 2021, followed by a multi-missile test in 2022.^[405][439]

The LRHW has been named 'Dark Eagle'^[440] The first LRHW battery will start to receive its first operational rounds in early FY2023; all eight rounds for this battery will have been delivered by FY2023.^[441][380] By then, the PEO Missiles and Space will have picked up the LRHW program, for batteries two and three in FY'25 and FY'27, respectively.^[441] Battery one will first train, and then participate in the LRHW flight test launches in FY'22 and FY'23.^{[441][c][442]} In February 2023 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (5-3 LRFB) —1st MDTF's long-range fires battalion— deployed the LRHW to Cape Canaveral, a distance of 3100 miles.^[443][382]

In Fiscal Year 2019, the network CFT will leverage Network Integration Evaluation 18.2^[444] for experiments with brigade level scalability.^[445] By 2022, 4 separate network Capability Sets were in-process, simultaneously ('21, '23, '25, and '27).^[446]

Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) "is not a new or separate network but rather a concept"—PEO C3T.^{[447][448][449]} Avoid overspecifying the requirements for Integrated Tactical Network^{[70][i][447][450][451][452][453][454][455]} Information Systems Initial Capabilities Document. Instead, meet operational needs,^{[456][445][19]} such as interoperability with other networks,^{[457][282]: minute 26:40 [455]} and release ITN capabilities incrementally.^{[458][70][447]}

• Up through 2028, every two years the Army will insert new capability sets for ITN (Capability sets '21, '23, '25, etc.).^{[459][460][70][447]} and take feedback from Soldier-led experiment & evaluation.^{[461][462][463]} However, the Army's commitment to a 'campaign of learning' showed more paths:^[464][465]
  • Firestorm was made possible by a mesh network—improvising an MEO, and then a GEO satellite link between JBLM to YPG.^[466] There are plans to have a Project Convergence 2021.^{[145][467][468]} The Army fielded a data fabric at Project Convergence 2020;^[469] this will eventually be part of JADC2.^{[470][471][472][473]}
  • Five Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF) awards were granted to five vendors via the Network CFT and PEO C3T's request for white papers. That request, for a roll-on/roll-off kit that integrates all functions of mission command on the Army Network, was posted at the National Spectrum Consortium and FedBizOpps, and yielded awards within eight months.^{[474][Note 2]} Two more awards are forthcoming.
  • The Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO)'s Emerging Technologies Office structured a competition to find superior AI/Machine Learning algorithms for electronic warfare, from a field of 150 contestants, over a three-month period.^{[475][Note 2]}
  • The Multi-Domain Operations Task Force (MDO TF) is standing up an experimental Electronic Warfare Platoon to prototype an estimated 1000 EW soldiers needed for the 31 BCTs of the active Army.^[476][109]
• Capability Set '21 fields ITN to selected infantry brigades to prepare for IVAS Integrated vision goggles. Expeditionary signal brigades get enhanced satellite communications.
  • 1/82nd Airborne, 173rd Airborne, 3/25th ID, and 3/82nd Airborne infantry brigades will all have fielded the Integrated Tactical Network Capability Set '21 by year-end 2021.^[477][450] 2nd Cavalry Regiment is getting Capability Set '21 on Strykers,^[478] which will test the CS'23 network design on Strykers early.^[479]
• Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) Capability Set '23 is prototyping JADC2 communications and the data fabric, to LEO (Low earth orbit) and to MEO (Medium earth orbit) satellites, as continued in Project Convergence 2021 in Yuma Proving Ground.^{[469][480][478][481]} Capability Set '23 has passed its Critical design review (CDR).^[446][q]
• Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) Capability Set '25 will implement JADC2, according to the acting head of the Network CFT (9 June 2021).^[483]
• By 2023 the brigade-centric capability sets CS'21 and CS'23 already support mobile headquarters operation (Infantry and Stryker BCTs). The Armored BCTs are heavily affected by the need to support Large scale combat operations;^{[484][485][486][487][488]} these Heavy brigades are to operate as part of a Division-level, and Corps-level plan.^[489]
• Command post footprint is to be reduced even at the division level, to keep headquarters survivable,^[448][489] and the next network updates (the former CS'25) are for the echelons above brigade;^[489][486] this new upgrade strategy will make the network more agile.^[489]
• The former Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) Capability Sets for the '25 and '27 waypoints^[459] are to be implemented with rapid updates that are independent of previous tests. The Army network will rely upon a single standardized foundation.^[489]

• G-6 John Morrison is seeking to unify the battlefield networks of ITN, and IEN (Enterprise Network), as of September 2021.^[490][491]
  • An Army leader dashboard from PEO Enterprise Information Systems is underway.^[492][493] The dashboard is renamed Vantage.^[494] The dashboard has streamlined and connected data updates for deployments.^[495] Cloud-service-provider agnostic abstraction layers are in use, which allows merging the staff work in G-3/5/7 for cyber/EW (electronic warfare), mission command, and space.^[496] The "seamless, real-time flow of data" across multiple domains (land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace) is an objective for G-6, as well as the sensor-to-shooter work at Futures command.^{[316][496][497][469]}
  • Fort Irwin, Fort Cavazos, Joint Base San Antonio, and Joint Base Lewis McChord have 5G experiments on wireless connectivity between forward operating bases and tactical operations centers, as well as nonaircraft Augmented reality support of maintenance and training.^[498]
  • The Multi-domain task forces (MDTFs)^[79] will be used to expose any capability gaps in the Unified network plan.^[499][490]

Air, Missile Defense (AMD):^{[500][501][502][15][503][504]} In 2022 plans for FY2023 cruise missile defense were underway.^{[505] [506]}

A contract for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command's High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL TVD) laser system, a 100 kilowatt laser demonstrator for use on the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, was awarded 15 May 2019 to Dynetics-Lockheed.^[507][273] A 300 kilowatt laser demonstrator (HEL-IFPC) effort supersedes the HEL TVD (after the critical design review).^{[508][509][510][511]} System test at White Sands Missile Range in 2023.^[507]

^{[512][513][514][502][515][516][517][518]}

• Maneuver short-range air defense (MSHORAD)^{[519][502][520]} with laser cannon prototypes in 2020,^[510] In July 2021 RCCTO conducted a combat shootoff on just how to control pointing these high-energy lasers.^[521][522] Raytheon is providing the high energy laser (Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense system —DE M-SHORAD) for the Strykers in 2022.^{[244][523][524]}
• RCCTO has awarded a contract to build a 300 kW high-energy laser (HEL) for the Army in FY2022, capable of defending against airborne threats, by acquiring, tracking, and maintaining the HEL's aimpoint on the threat until it goes down.^[525]

1. Soldier Lethality:^{[526][527][528][529]}
   • Next Generation Squad Weapon Program: Expect 100,000 to be fielded to the Close Combat Force:^[530][r] Infantry, Armor, Cavalry, Special Forces, and Combat engineers. Tests at Fort Benning in 2019. —Chief of Staff Milley^[532]
   • Nine thousand systems, with two drones apiece are being purchased over a three-year period for the 9-man infantry squads heading to Afghanistan.^[533]
   • Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) —an augmented reality display— allows soldiers to use multiple sensors to fight.^[451] IVAS was put on hold in March 2022, with Congress budgeting $349 million in favor of drones instead.^[534] An initial IVAS buy was approved in September 2022 after a six month hold.^[452] An improved IVAS is being sought after finding that some soldiers are being physically affected from wearing the goggles.^[535]
   • Enhanced night vision goggles (ENVG)-B, will be fielded to an Armor brigade combat team (ABCT) going to South Korea in October 2019^{[536][530][537]}
     • A CCDC program which instrumented a battalion with sleep monitors, Redibands, and smartwatches to detect exertion, detected soldiers with elevated heart rates, indicating the beginnings of a streptococcus infection. This condition was detected by the medics, and would have impacted the battalion, detected before deploying to Afghanistan.^[538]
   • Synthetic training environment (STE)—a CFT devoted to an augmented reality system^[306][539] to aid planning, using mapping techniques, even at squad level^{[540][541][245]} will begin fielding by 2021.^{[542][157][543]} In October 2019 the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) prototype is being used by Special Operations for planning actual missions.^[544][308] Development for the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) is to be accelerated to meet MDO and JADC2 training demands.^[545]
2. On the battlefield of the future, where no headquarters is safe for long, the commander's task is:^{[546]: p.87}
   • "Avoid being detected and targeted".^[208]
   • "Work through and survive attacks".^[208]
   • "Rapidly recover from losses".
   • Thus the commander has to be continuously aware of the current status (that is: alive or not) of the deputy commander (and the staff) so that the mission can be completed.

In 2019 DoD planners are exercising Doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities (DOTMLPF) in planning, per the National Defense Strategy (NDS),^[547] in the shift from counterinsurgency (COIN) to competition with near-peer powers.^[547] The evaluations from planners' scenarios will be determining materiel and organization by late 2020.^{[547][113][548][549]}

Futures Command is formulating multiyear Enterprise campaign plans, in 2019.^[550][299] 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. At this stage, one goal is to formulate the plans in simple, coherent language which nests within the national security strategic documents.^{[550][46][551][229][552][553]} By October 2022 Field Manual 3-0 could state that The Army Operating Concept was that 'Multi-domain Operations are at the root of all Army operations',^{[554]: § 1-11, p.1-3 [555]: minute 28:09 to 36:00}

Gen. Murray functions as the Army's chief futures modernization investment officer.^{[18][255]: Section 4 [Note 2][65]}

In the top six priorities:

1. LRPF Long range precision fires^{[o][556][557]}
   • Hypersonic materiel development:^[275] the Strategic long range cannon (SLRC), for a hypersonic projectile,^[558][559] is meant to have a range up to 1,000 nautical miles.^[560] An early ballistic test took place at Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, as announced at AUSA in October 2019.^[560][131]
     • ERCA development at Picatinny Arsenal: evaluate several manufacturing technologies, tied to the XM1113 munition.^[561][562]
   • Targeting with thousand-mile missiles,^{[277][276][317][116][117]} "streamlining the sensor-shooter link at every echelon"—BG^[563] John Rafferty,^[276] in Integrated fire^{[564][565][566]}
2. NGCV Next generation combat vehicle^[567][158]
   • Much smaller and lighter ground combat vehicles, optionally unmanned^[311] (Dedicated short-range communications for robotic vehicles^[568]

     

     • If robotic combat vehicles (RCVs) do not need to be manned, neither would they need to be armored (see Uran-9); use of sensors and batteries could replace the armor.^[570][571] Soldiers have learned to remotely operate the weapons on such RCVs in several days;^[570] the CCDC RCV Center and CFT are placing RCV prototypes and the Soldier's vehicle prototypes in company-level scenarios in Europe, in 2020 and forward.^[570] Modified Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M113s at Fort Carson went through unit-level operations to gain experience with RCVs in July and August 2020.^[572] Future breaching operations will be affected in detail by the robotic breaching concept, according to the panel at the AUSA October 2020 meeting.^[573][574]
   • Robotic warfare, as a concept or capability at the Joint Corps echelon, was demonstrated at the operational level using Joint Warfighting assessment (JWA) 18.1 in April 2018.
     • JWA 19 (April–May 2019): I Corps, at Joint base Lewis-McChord, is getting modernization training on the robotic complex breaching concept (RCBC),^[575] and the command post computing environment (CPCE)^[576] from Joint modernization command (JMC) training staff.^[577]
     • Create decisive lethality:^{[578][579][138]} Robotic experiments^[580][581]
       • Jen Judson reports that Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley is proposing that the brigades begin to electrify their vehicles using hybrid,^[582] or all-electric propulsion.^{[583][584][s]}
       • Smaller brigades and stronger division-level maneuver, with robotic aerial reconnaissance vehicles, robotic combat vehicles (RCVs), and long-range precision fires (LRPFs) are under consideration.^[592][222]
       • Modified M2 Bradleys (MET-Ds) and other RCVs operating at Fort Carson, and in Europe have used robotic software to operate the vehicles, for both logistics and also for combat maneuver.^[593] As of August 2020, the RCVs are able to perform limited waypoint navigation; multiple vehicles can be controlled by one human operator.^[593]
3. FVL^[594] "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." —Secretary of the Army Mark Esper^[269]
   • The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) scout helicopter prototypes are to be designed to fly along urban streets, to survive air defenses.^[595] Five design vendors were selected, with downselect to two for prototyping by February 2020.^[595]
   • These aircraft are envisioned as platforms for utilizing sensor networks to control and enable weapons delivery, as demonstrated in a 2019 experiment.^[596][597] In preparation for FVL platforms, the FVL CFT demonstrated a 2020 Spike non-line of sight missile launch from an Apache gunship at Yuma Proving Ground, for extended range capability;^[598] a forward air launch of an unmanned sensor aircraft (UAS) from a helicopter was demonstrated at YPG as well.^[599]
4. Mobile & Expeditionary Network^[546] / MDO Multi-domain operations^[20][354]
   • In the battlefield of the future, where nowhere is safe for long, "you will miss opportunities to get to positions of advantage if you don't synthesize the data very quickly"—LTG Wesley (AI for multi-domain command and control: MDC2)^{[119][600][110]} "Finding and engaging high-value relocatable ground systems within rapid timelines" is the Air Force's operational objective in this JADC2 exercise (December 2019) —Eliahu Norwood, Greg Grant, and Tyler Lewis.^[601]
     • ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance)^[k][d] needs to match the range of the upcoming LRPF (Long range precision fires) and thousand-nautical-mile missile standoff capability of the Army.^[602] Soldiers on the ground are now able to receive satellite ISR.^[603][604]
   • Cybersecurity^{[605][606][607][608]} RAND simulations show Blue losses^[112]
   • Cyber warfare^[609] / urban warfare^{[113][610][611][612][613]} / Underground warfare / Multi-domain combined maneuver^{[614][138][615]} Robotic swarms are a tactic under consideration.^{[616][301][617][110]}
   • Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT)^{[102][618][619]} Zephyr, a solar-powered drone successfully stayed aloft at Yuma Proving Ground for nearly 26 days, at times descending to 55,000 feet to avoid adverse weather conditions, while remaining well above the altitudes flown by commercial aircraft, and landing per plan in the summer of 2018, to meet other testing commitments.^[620] A 2022 test of Zephyr S began on 15 June 2022; as of 22 July 2022 the drone was still flying at 70,000 feet in the stratosphere, and has broken its previous non-stop record.^[621] However on 19 August, after 64 days, Zephyr S lost 20,000 feet of altitude, before suddenly plummeting at high speed in a presumed crash at YPG. Zephyr yielded over 1500 hours of stratospheric data during the mission. This surpasses Airbus' goal of 60 days of unmanned service, which included international flight from Arizona to Belize, and back.^[622] Zephyr would have broken the world record for continuous flight, had it lasted just a few more hours.^{[623][624][625]} In April 2021 a Vanilla UAS demonstrated 45 hour 23 minute unrefueled flight from Point Mugu to the Pacific Fleet's (PACFLT) UxS IBP 2021 exercise.^[626][627]
     • An A-PNT event was scheduled at WSMR for August 2019
       • ^{[70]: pp220-3 [i][628][629][630][70]: pp220-1 [i][631][391]}
     • Prototype jam-resistant GPS kits are being fielded to 2nd Cavalry Regiment in US European Command (EUCOM) before year-end 2019.^[270] 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.^[632]
     • A Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) is under development.^{[633][128][204]}
       • 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-PNT^[634]
     • CCDC Army Research Laboratory (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).^[635]
     • CCDC Army Research Laboratory (ARL): 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".^[636]
     • CCDC Army Research Laboratory (ARL): ARL's Army Research Office (ARO) is seeking diamond colloids, microscopic spheres which can assemble bottom-up into promising structures for laser action.^[637]
     • Newly developed materials with nanoscale trusses could serve as armor or coatings.^[638]
     • 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 during a NavWar.^[216]
5. Air, Missile Defense^{[557][116][117][515]} is being reframed, as more integrated.^{[639][640][641]}
   1. • Integrated Air and Missile Battle Command System (IBCS)^[642] award, including next software build.^[643][116]

^[117] $238 million also funds initial prototypes of the command and control system for fielding in FY22.^[502]

1. 1. • • Hypersonic glide vehicle launch preparations,^[137] beginning in 2020, and continuing with launches every six months.^[129]
        • At Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake an FVL CFT-sponsored demonstration of interconnected sensors handed-off the control of a glide munition which had been launched from a Grey Eagle unmanned aircraft system (UAS). During the flight of that munition, another group of sensors picked up a higher-priority target; another operator at the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) redirected the glide munition to the higher-priority target and destroyed it.^{[596][644][645]} See: § Air-launched effects
   2. Indiscriminate use of thousands of offensive missiles against Ukraine "shows we should expect these weapons to become a common feature of 21st-century conflict" —unnamed DoD official, 27 October 2022.^{[646][647][648]}
   3. Contested logistics are needed for Ukraine's Army, in a time span of months as of April 2022.^{[649][650][651]} As a test of its assumptions on contested logistics, the 2023 exercises for IndoPacom will test its prepositioned stocks.^[652] The CG of Army Materiel Command is taking the lead for contested logistics.^[653]
2. Soldier lethality
   • Sensor-to-shooter prototype for multi-domain battle, 2019 operational assessment: Air Force RCO / Army RCO / Network CFT^{[134][135][136]}
   • Night vision goggles thermal polarimetric camera.^[654] Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS)^{[655][656][657][658][451][659][660][661][662]} The Synthetic Training Environment (STE) is available to some of the troops outfitted with IVAS.^[663] Christine Wormuth, 25th Secretary of the Army, has identified the Army's work on a Common operating picture (COP) as foundational for the operation of the Joint services.^{[664][665][666]}
   • 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.^[667]
     • 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.^[668]
   • CCDC ARL and MIT researchers are formulating atomically thin materials to be layered upon soldiers' equipment and clothing for MDO information display and processing.^[669]
   • Integrated, wearable cabling for capabilities such as IVAS, NGSW, or Nett Warrior are under development;^[670] the potential exists to reduce 20 pounds of batteries to half that weight.^[671]
   • CCDC ARL is undertaking an Essential research program (ERP) in the processes underlying additive manufacturing (3D printing), which is applicable to munitions.^[672]
   • Natick Soldier RDEC has awarded an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract to prototype soldier exoskeletons which augment human leg strength under harsh conditions.^{[673][674][675][676]}
   • DEVCOM Chem Bio Center (CBC) is developing sensors to detect possible hazardous contamination.^[677]
   • Plans for the Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) are underway.^[678][679] An ISV is meant to be airdropped for a squad of nine paratroopers.^[680] The GM design was selected; first unit is expected at 1/82nd AB division in February 2021.^[681][682]
     • Assured pointing, navigation and tracking (A-PNT) devices are being miniaturized, with increased redundant positioning sources. This aids wearability.^{[630][70]: pp220-3 [i]}
     • In September 2019 in the Maneuver CoE's Battle Lab at Fort Moore, OneSAF simulations^[683] 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.^[683]

AFC's headquarters is based in Austin, Texas where it spreads across three locations totaling 75,000 ft²;^[159] One location is a University of Texas System building at 210 W. Seventh St. in downtown Austin, on the 15th and 19th floors; the UT Regents were not going to charge rent to AFC until December 2019.^[684][685]

The commanding general is assisted by three deputy commanders.

• The Futures and Concepts Center.^[295] The first commander was AFC deputy commanding general Gen. Eric J. Wesley,^{[686][198][346][66][67]}, and it was led in 2021 by Lieutenant General Scott McKean.^[546] The center operates along four lines of effort: science and technology^{[Note 3][687]}, experiments, concepts development^{[65][303][298]}, an requirements development.^[24]

• Combat Development.^{[325][688][295]} 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 (CoE), works with its CFT^{[Note 1]} and its research, development and engineering center (RDEC) to develop operational experiments and prototypes to test.
  • The Battle Labs and The Research Analysis Center (TRAC)^[297][303] prototype and analyze the concepts to test.
  • JMC provides live developmental experiments to test those concepts or capabilities, "scalable from company level to corps, amid tough, realistic multi-domain operations".^{[161][10][118]}
  • Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC, or DEVCOM), the former RDECOM, part of the Combat Development element. Stood up on 3 February 2019.^{[325][76][286][689][66][67]}
• Acquisition and Systems (founded as Combat Systems in 2018).^[t][a]
  • 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.^[694]
  • Combat Systems refines, engineers, and produces the developed solutions from Combat Development.^[695][696]

Lieutenant General John M. Murray became Army Futures Command's first commanding general upon its activation on 24 August 2018.^{[159][697][698][699][91][92][693][93][94][95]} Lieutenant General James E. Rainey (promoted to general on 7 October 2022)^[700] became AFC's second commanding general on 4 October 2022.^[a]

No.	Portrait	Name and rank	Took office	Left office	Term length
1		General John M. Murray	24 August 2018	3 December 2021	3 years, 101 days
-		Lieutenant General James M. Richardson Acting	3 December 2021	4 October 2022	305 days
2		General James E. Rainey	4 October 2022	Incumbent	1 year, 333 days

• Military acquisition § In the United States
• Military budget of the United States
• Command systems in the United States Army
• Air and Missile Defense
• Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center § Soldier Lethality
• Manhattan Project
• Space Warfighting Analysis Center

This article may contain an excessive number of citations. Please help remove low-quality or irrelevant citations. (September 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)