United States Army Futures Command
United States Army Futures Command (AFC)[4][5] is a United States Army command aimed at modernizing the Army.[6][7][8] It currently focuses on six priorities:[Note 1] 1— long-range precision fires,[9][10] 2— next-generation combat vehicle,[11] 3— future vertical lift platforms,[12] 4— a mobile & expeditionary Army network,[13] 5— air & missile defense capabilities,[14] and 6— soldier lethality.[15][16] AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs)[17] are Futures Command's vehicle for sustainable reform of the acquisition process for the future.[18][19] [20]
United States Army Futures Command | |
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Founded | 1 July 2018 |
Country | ![]() |
Branch | ![]() |
Type | Army Command |
Garrison/HQ | Austin, TX |
Motto(s) | "Forge the future"[1] |
Website | army armyfuturescommand |
Commanders | |
Commanding General[2] | GEN John M. Murray |
Deputy Commanding Generals[2] | LTG James M. Richardson LTG Thomas H. Todd[3] |
Command Sergeant Major[2] | CSM Michael A. Crosby |
Insignia | |
Distinctive unit insignia[1] | ![]() |
Beret flash | ![]() |
Futures Command (AFC) was established in 2018 as a peer of FORSCOM, TRADOC, and Army Materiel Command (AMC), the other Army commands (ACOMs—providing forces, training and doctrine, and materiel respectively).[21][22] The other Army commands focus on their readiness to "Fight tonight" when called upon by the nation. In contrast, AFC is focused on future readiness[23] for competition with near-peers, who have updated their capabilities.[24][25]
AFC declared its Full Operational Capability (FOC) in July 2019,[26][27] after an initial one-year period.[28] The FY2020 budget allocated $30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over the next five years.[29] The $30 billion came from $8 billion in cost avoidance and $22 billion in terminations.[29][30] Over 30 projects[31][32] are envisioned to become the materiel basis needed for overmatching any potential competitors in the continuum of conflict over the next ten years,[33][34] in Multi-domain operations (MDO).[40][41]
Transition to multi-domain operations (MDO)
We're moving out and there's no turning back. We've shown the will to act over the last year, and now we have to show the will to follow through.
![](../I/Multi-domain_operations%252CinvestmentPlan2020.png.webp)
According to Secretary McCarthy, there will be three elements in Futures Command:[46]
- Futures and Concepts: assess gaps (needs versus opportunities,[47] given a threat).[46] Concepts for realizable future systems (with readily harvestable content)[48][49]:for definitions of terms, such as '6.3' will flow into TRADOC doctrine, manuals, and training programs.
- Combat Development: stabilized concepts.[48][49] 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.[50] (See #Value stream)
- Combat Systems: experiments, demonstrations, and prototypes.[51] Transition to the acquisition, production, and sustainment programs of AMC.[51][52]
Then-Secretary of the Army, Mark Esper emphasized that the 2018 administrative infrastructure for the Futures and Concepts Center (formerly ARCIC) and United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) (formerly RDECOM) remains in place at their existing locations.[53] What has changed or will change is the layers of command (operational control, or OPCON)[54] needed to make a decision.[53]
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.
Cross-Functional Teams (CFTs)
Under Secretary McCarthy characterized a Cross-Functional Team (CFT) as a team of teams, led by a requirements leader, program manager, sustainer and tester.[56] Each CFT must strike a balance for itself amid constraints: the realms of requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment. A balance is needed in order for a CFT in order to produce a realizable concept before a competitor achieves it.[17]
CFTs[17][57] for materiel and capabilities were first structured in a task force, in order to de-layer the Army Commands. 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] Initially, the CFTs were placed as needed; eventually they might each co-locate at a Center of Excellence (CoE) listed below. For example, the Aviation CoE 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.[58] "We were never above probably a total of eight people" — BG Wally Rugen, Aviation CFT.[59] 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.[59]
Although AFC and the CFTs are a top priority of the Department of the Army, as AFC and the CFTs are expected to unify control of the $30 billion-dollar modernization budget,[60][27] "The new command will not tolerate a zero-defects mentality. 'But if you fail, we'd like you to fail early and fail cheap,' because progress and success often builds on failure." —Ryan McCarthy:[61] Holland notes that prototyping applies to the conceptual realm ('harvestable content') as much as prototyping applies to the hardware realm.[48][49]
A 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report[62] cautions that lessons learned from the CFT pilot[17] are yet to be applied; Holland notes that this organizational critique applies to prototyping hardware, a different realm than concept refinement ("scientific research is a fundamentally different activity than technology development").[48][49]
Joint collaboration on modernization
The Secretaries of the Army, Air Force, and Navy meet regularly to take advantage of overlap in their programs:[63][64]
- Hypersonics — The US Army (August 2018) has no tested countermeasure for intercepting maneuverable hypersonic weapons platforms,[65][66] and in this case the problem is being addressed in a joint program of the entire Department of Defense.[67] The Army is participating in a joint program with the Navy and Air Force, to develop a hypersonic glide body.[75] The Long range precision fires (LRPF) CFT is supporting Space and Missile Defense Command's pursuit of hypersonics.[78] Joint programs in hypersonics are informed by Army work;[79][80] however, at the strategic level, the bulk of the hypersonics work remains at the Joint level.[85] Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) is an Army priority, and also a DoD joint effort.[80] The Army and Navy's Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) had a successful test of a prototype in March 2020.[86][84] A wind tunnel for testing hypersonic vehicles will be built in Texas (2019).[87] The Army's Land-based Hypersonic Missile "is intended to have a range of 1,400 miles".[73]:p.6 [74] By adding rocket propulsion to a shell or glide body, the joint effort shaved five years off the likely fielding time for hypersonic weapon systems.[63][88] Countermeasures against hypersonics will require sensor data fusion: both radar and infrared sensor tracking data will be required to capture the signature of a hypersonic vehicle in the atmosphere.[93]
- Multi-Domain Operations (MDO)[97] — Joint planning and operations are also part of the impending DoD emphasis on multi-domain operations.[102] Multi-domain battalions, first stood up in 2019,[103][104] comprise a single unit[105][106] for air, land,[107] space,[111]— and cyber [112][113] domains.[114][63][113] A hypersonics-based battery similar to a THAAD battery is under consideration for this type of battalion,[69][86] denoted a strategic fires battalion.[115][116]
- The ability to punch-through any standoff defense of a near-peer competitor is the goal which Futures Command is seeking.[120] For example, the combination of F-35-based targeting coordinates, Long range precision fires, and Low-earth-orbit satellite[121] capability overmatches the competition, according to Lt. Gen. Wesley.[122][131] 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.[118][72]Multi-domain operations (MDO) span multiple domains: cislunar space, land, air, maritime, cyber, and populations.[123]:minute 17:45[125][126] Echelons above brigade (division, corps, and theater army) engage in a continuum of conflict.
- 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;[132] 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[133] (currently 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.[134]
- Penetrate phase: satellites detect enemy shooters
- Dis-integrate phase: airborne assets remove enemy long range fires
- Kinetic effect phase: Army shooters, using targeting data from aircraft and other sensors, fire on enemy targets.[135]
- Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville will discuss the combination of MDO and JADC2 with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown.[133] 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).[136]
- The ability to punch-through any standoff defense of a near-peer competitor is the goal which Futures Command is seeking.[120] For example, the combination of F-35-based targeting coordinates, Long range precision fires, and Low-earth-orbit satellite[121] capability overmatches the competition, according to Lt. Gen. Wesley.[122]
Partners
AFC is actively seeking partners outside the gates of a military reservation,[137] including research funding to over 300 colleges and universities.[27] "We will come to you. You don't have to come to us. — General Mike Murray, 24 August 2018"[28]:minute 6:07 Multiple incubator tech hubs are available in Austin,[138] especially Capital Factory, with offices of Defense Innovation Unit (DIUx) and AFWERX (USAF tech hub).[139] Gen. Murray will stand up an Army Applications Lab[Note 2] there to accelerate acquisition and deployment of materiel to the Soldiers, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) [140] as one acceleration technique; Murray will hire a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for AFC.[141][142] Gen. Murray, in seeking to globalize AFC,[143] has embedded U.S. military allies into some of the CFTs.[144][27]
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) Modernization[145][146] — The Secretary of the Army has 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:[140][147]
- Army AI task force[148][149] (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)[150]
- 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.[151][152] Funding will be assured for the Fiscal Year 2019.[63][153]
- 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.[157]
- 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 F-16 fighter pilot in simulated combat on 20 August 2020.[158] On 20 August 2020, the champion AI agent consistently defeated a human F-16 pilot in a series of dogfights.[159]
- 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.[160] JAIC is seeking to curate the flood of data at DoD[161][48] to allow systematic, reliable datasets which are usable for machine learning.[162]
- Adaptive Distributed Allocation of Probabilistic Tasks (ADAPT) is a DARPA model for testing AI-to-human communication in a toy environment. [163]
- 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.[157]
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.[164][165] 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 Al Work Force Development program and this Software Factory will complement the Artificial Intelligence Task Force.[164][166]
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).[58] AFC will partner with other organizations such as Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) as needed.[79][167] 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.[168] The Secretary of the Army has approved an Intellectual Property Management Policy, to protect both the Army and the entrepreneur or innovator.[169][170]
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[171] in the near future.[172][112][173] 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 CERDEC for continuation in the Army's effort to modernize the network for combat.[174] Although some test requirements were inappropriately applied, the Command post computing environment (CPCE) has passed a hurdle.[175]
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".[176] In January 2020 the current Optionally manned fighting vehicle (OMFV) solicitation was cancelled when the OMFV's requirements added up to an unobtainable project;[177] In February 2020 Futures command was now soliciting the industry for do-able ideas for an OMFV.[177]
The 2020 xTechSearch top 10 semifinalists (who will each receive $120,000) are:[178]
- 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
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.[179] 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).[180] 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.[180]
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 actually allowed the company more time for business development.[181]
AFC events
- See the AFC events below
Acquisition
![](../I/Acquisition_Process.jpg.webp)
Futures Command partners with the ASA(ALT),[182][19] who, in the role of the Army Acquisition Executive (AAE),[183] has milestone decision authority (MDA)[51] at multiple points in a Materiel development decision (MDD).[184] (Thus, from the perspective of AFC, which seeks to modernize, 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 currently 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).[185] 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.[185] 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:[183][184][48] over 1200 programs/projects were reviewed;[186] 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).[186] An additional life cycle management action is underway, to re-examine which of these projects/programs should be divested.[186] (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.[186] In order to achieve its mission of achieving overmatch,[187][94][47] each Futures Command CFT partners with the acquisition community.[188] This community (the Army acquisition workforce (AAW)) includes an entire Army branch (the Acquisition Corps),[194] U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC), Army Contracting Command, (.. This list is incomplete).[184] The Principal Military Deputy to the ASA(ALT) is also deputy commanding general for Combat Systems, Army Futures Command,[183] and leads the PEOs; he has directed each PEO who does not have a CFT to coordinate with, to immediately form one, at least informally.[195]
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.[46]
The PEOs work closely with their respective CFTs.[188] 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),[59] and provide a point of contact (POC) for Army reformers[47] interested in adding value in the midst of constraints to be balanced while modernizing.[59] "... and if we're really good, we'll continue to adapt. Year over year over year." —Secretary Esper[28]:minute 19:00[6] (See #Value streams.)
Prototyping and experimentation
"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.[196] The development process will be cyclic,[197] consisting of prototype, demonstration/testing, and evaluation,[168] in an iterative process designed to unearth unrealistic requirements early, before prematurely including that requirement in a program of record.[27]
AFC activities include at least one Cross-functional team, its Capability development integration directorate (CDID),[198]:Para. 2b and the associated Battle Lab,[198]:Para. 2b for each Center of Excellence (CoE) respectively. Each CDID and associated Battle Lab work with their CFT[55] 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,[203]
Tests are run by JMC and WSMR, which hosts ATEC.[204] As ATEC reports directly to the Army Chief of Staff,[22] the test support level from ATEC[205] is to be specified by the CFT,[55] or PEO.[206] Fort Bliss and WSMR together cover 3.06 million acres, large enough to test every non-nuclear weapon system in the Army inventory.[207]: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,[55] or AMSAA, denoted the Data Analysis Center at APG. CCDC (formerly RDECOM, at APG) includes the several Army research laboratory locations (ARLs),[208] as well as research, development and engineering centers (RDECs) listed:[198][55][6]
In internal partnerships, CCDC (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,[209] 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.[209] Two dedicated RDECOM people support the LRPF CFT, with reachback support from two dozen more at RDECOM.[210] 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.[211][6]
Although the Army Research Laboratory has not changed its name, Secretary Esper notes that the CCDC objectives supersede the activities of the Laboratory;[55][48][49] 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), 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.[212]
AFC branch locations
The following activities for Futures Command are at 23 locations.[213] (A 'CoE', or TRADOC Center of Excellence, can be co-located near a CFT, along with the associated CDID —Capability Development Integration Directorate— and Battle Lab)
- AFC HQ, Austin TX[215]
- AFSG Army Future Studies Group,[48][49] 2530 Crystal Dr, Arlington, VA 22202
- Futures and Concepts Center of AFC,[216] formerly ARCIC Fort Eustis VA
- JMC Joint Modernization Command,[139] Fort Bliss, which is contiguous to WSMR
- WSMR White Sands Missile Range NM,[204] also houses ARL,[217] TRAC,[218] and ATEC.[207]:minute 1:19:00
- FT LVN Operations research: Mission Command Battle Lab,[219][220][221][95] Capability development integration directorate (CDID),[222] The Research Analysis Center (TRAC), formerly TRADOC Analysis Center,[218][223] Fort Leavenworth KS Example of the use of simulations —"a simulation places 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"[224][225] "It is important for Soldiers to have an open and clear mind during the simulation so that they learn something from the experience."—Tim Glaspie [226] —Train the trainer: A trainer (not shown) is interviewing a virtual Soldier in a role-playing session. The virtual Soldier has a leadership role in an Army unit. The trainer 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 SHARP policy. Trainers using this role-playing program can review missed concepts and practice lessons they didn't get right during their first trial. "Repetition increases a team’s situational understanding of the tactics they’ll use ..."—Maj. Anthony Clas[227] These simulations are created at Army Research Laboratory (ARL) West, and ICT, Playa Vista, CA
- CCOE Cyber CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),[234] Fort Gordon GA
- CFT: Mobile and Expeditionary Network[171]
- MCOE Maneuver CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),[235] Fort Benning GA
- CFT: Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV)[236]
- CFT: Soldier Lethality
- AVNCOE Aviation CoE - (its CDID),[237][119] at Fort Rucker
- CFT: Future Vertical Lift (FVL)
- FCOE Fires CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),[244] Fort Sill OK
- ICOE Intelligence CoE - (its CDID),[245] Fort Huachuca AZ
- MSCOE Maneuver Support CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab),[246] Fort Leonard Wood MO
- SCOE Sustainment CoE - (its CDID),[247] Fort Lee VA
- APG[248][249] Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen MD, also houses Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC),[250] formerly RDECOM, Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA), and C5ISR center[251][252][253] (the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center was formerly CERDEC)
- 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
- Ground vehicle systems center (formerly Tank Automotive research, development and engineering center —TARDEC), Detroit Arsenal (Warren, Michigan)
- CFT: Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV)
- Aviation and missile center (formerly Aviation and Missile research, development and engineering center —AMRDEC), Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville AL[254]
- CFT: Air and Missile Defense
- Soldier center[255] (formerly Natick Soldier research, development and engineering center —NSRDEC), General Greene Ave, Natick, MA 01760
- ARL-Adelphi Army Research Laboratory,[260] Adelphi MD 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)[259]
- ARL-Orlando Army Research Laboratory,[231][232][52]:p.27 Orlando FL
- ARL West, Playa Vista[261] CA
- ARL-RTP Army Research Laboratory, Raleigh-Durham NC
- AI task force at Carnegie-Mellon University[145][55]
Need for modernization reform
Between 1995 and 2009, $32 billion was expended on programs such as the Future Combat System[262] (2003-2009), with no harvestable content by the time of its cancellation.[263] The Army has not fielded a new combat system in decades.[267]
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.[268][23][54] 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[43]:minute 41:50 (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 )[28]:minute 11:00[269][270][6] Process changes are expected.[269][48] 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 ASA(ALT) Bruce Jette[188] has cautioned the acquisition community to 'call-out' unrealistic processes which commit a program to a drawn-out failure,[271] rather than failing early, and seeking another solution.[272]
Secretary Esper scrubbed through 800[273] modernization programs to reprioritize funding[274] for the top 6 modernization priorities,[60] which will consume 80% of the modernization funding,[275] of 18 systems.[275] The Budget Control Act will restrict funds by 2020.[288] Secretary McCarthy has cautioned that a stopgap 2019 Continuing resolution (CR) would halt development of some of the critical modernization projects.[289][290] Realistically, budget considerations will restrict the fielding of new materiel to one Armor BCT per year;[291] at that rate, updates would take decades.[291] The Budget Control Act (BCA) expires in 2022.[292][293] 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.[294] The total FY2021 budget request of $178 billion is $2 billion less than the enacted FY2020 budget of $180 billion.[302][295]
The CIO/G6 has targeted Futures Command (Austin) in 2019 as the first pilot for "enterprise IT-as-a-service"-style service contracts; General Murray now (July 2019) has a sensitive compartmented information facility in his headquarters, as a result of this pilot.[26] Two other locations are to be announced for 2019. Six to eight other pilots are envisioned for 2020. However, 288 other enterprise network locations remain to be migrated away from the previous "big bang" migration concept from several years ago, as they are vulnerable to near-peer cyber threats.[303][207]:minute 16:50 The CIO/G6 emphasizes that this enterprise migration is not the tactical network espoused in the top six priorities (a 'mobile & expeditionary Army network').[303][304]
- After AFC, the following G6 service contracts are high priority:[303]
- The Combat Training Centers (Fort Irwin, Fort Polk, and Grafenwöhr)
- TRADOC and its Centers of Excellence (CoEs)
- The power projection bases from which deployments spring
By February 2020 the Vice Chief of Staff could assess that Army modernization was perceptibly speeding up.[305]
Silos
Chief Milley noted that AFC would actively reach out into the community in order to learn,[27] and that Senator John McCain's frank criticism of the acquisition process was instrumental for modernization reform at Futures command.[28]:minute 7:30[23] In fact, AFC soldiers would blend into Austin by not wearing their uniforms [to work side by side with civilians in the tech hubs],[27][306] Milley noted on 24 August 2018 press conference.[28]:minute 6:20 Secretary Esper said he expected failures during the process of learning how to reform the acquisition and modernization process;[28]:minute 18:20 the Network CFT and PEO have detected a process failure in the DOT&E[307] requirements process: some test requirements were inappropriately applied.[175][308]
In the Department of Defense, the materiel supply process was underwritten by the acquisition, logistics, and technology directorate of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), with a deputy secretary of defense (DSD) to oversee five areas, one of them being acquisition, logistics, and technology (ALT).[309] ALT is overseen by an under secretary of defense (USD).[310] (Each of the echelons at the level of DSD and USD serve at the pleasure of the president, as does the secretary of defense (SECDEF).) The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) trains acquisition professionals for the Army as well.
In 2016 when RDECOM reported to AMC (instead of to AFC, as it does as of 2018), AMC instituted Life cycle management command (LCMC)[188] of three of RDECOM's centers for aviation and missiles, electronics, and tanks:[311] AMRDEC,[312] CERDEC,[313][314] and TARDEC[315] respectively, as well as the three contracting[316] functions for the three centers.[271]
This Life Cycle Management (formulated in 2004)[317][318] was intended to exert the kind of operational control (OPCON)[54] needed just for the sustainment function (AMC's need for Readiness today),[271] 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.[186]
Due 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; they are respectively tracking 800 programs, and 35 priorities on a daily basis.[319]
Relevance for modernization
The CFTs,[Note 1] as prioritized 1 through 6 by the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA), each have to consider constraints: a balance of requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment.[17][56]
The Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and education, Personnel and Facilities (DOTMLPF) method of mission planning was instituted to quantify tradeoffs in joint planning.[54] TRADOC's Mission Command CoE uses DOTMLPF.[320] DOTMLPF will be used for modernization of the Army beyond materiel alone, which (as of 2019) is the current focus of the CFTs.[321][221] The updated modernization strategy, to move from concept to doctrine as well, will be unveiled by summer 2019.[321] DOTMLPF (doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities) itself is planned as a driver for modernization.[23][321] The plan is to have an MDO-capable Army by 2028, and an MDO-ready Army by 2035.[321][99]
TRADOC, ASA (ALT), and AFC are tied together in this process, according to Vice Chief McConville.[322] 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.[323]
The ASA(ALT), or Assistant Secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics, and technology is currently (2018) Dr. Bruce Jette. The ASA (ALT) is the civilian executive overseeing both the acquisition and the sustainment processes of the Department of the Army. The ASA(ALT) will coordinate the acquisition portion of modernization reform with AFC.[198]:Para. 1c[19]
Congress has given the Army Other Transaction Authority (OTA),[324][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.[195] This strips out one layer of bureaucracy as of 2018.[195][325][74] MTA (middle tier acquisition authority) is another tool available to Program Managers and Contracting Officers.[326]
Besides the AFC CFTS, the Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC)[327][328][329] could also play a part in acquisition reform;[330][331] 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.[332] The DCS G-8 is principal military advisor to the ASA (FM&C).[183]
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.[188][46]
There is now a PEO for Rapid Capabilities, to get rapid turnaround. The Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO)'s PEO gets two program managers, one for rapid prototyping, and one for rapid acquisition, of a capability.[333] The Rapid capabilities office (RCO) does not develop its own requirements; rather, the RCO gets the requirements from the Cross-functional team (CFT).[334] Rapid Capabilities (RCO) was headed by Tanya Skeen as PEO RCO[188] but Skeen moved to DoD, in late 2018.[335] In 2019 RCO became the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO)[336] Redstone Arsenal, headed by LTG L. Neil Thurgood,[70] lately of ASA (ALT)'s Army Hypersonics office.[200][69]
Progress toward MDO
The CG of Army Futures Command (AFC) is set to announce full operational capability (FOC) 31 July 2019.[337][338][41]
![](../I/XmPrototypeErca.jpg.webp)
The Army G8 is monitoring just how producible (Milestone C) the upcoming materiel will be; for the moment, the G8 is funding the materiel.[32] Follow-up on Modernization reviews is forthcoming, on a regular basis, according to the G8.[342][343][344]
The progress in the top six priorities being:[Note 1][346]
- Long range fires: Based on Futures Command's development between July 2018 and December 2020, Dan Gouré's assessment and summary of the Army's capability is that by 2023 the earliest versions of these weapons will be fielded:[347]
- The kill chains will take less than 1 minute, from detection of the target, to execution of the fires command;[341] these operations will have the capability to precisely strike "command centers, air defenses, missile batteries, and logistics centers"[347] nearly simultaneously.[348]
- 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.[125][126][349]
- LRPF (Long Range Precision Fires): Howitzer artillery ranges have doubled, in excess of 60 km, with accuracy within 1 meter of the aimpoint,[350] currently with sufficient accuracy to intercept cruise missiles, as of September 2020, reaching the 43 mile range as of December 2020.[351]
- PrSMs (Precision Strike Missiles) can range their fire in excess of 150 miles,[352] with current 2020 tests
- MRC (Mid-range capability) fires can reach in excess of 500 to 1000 miles,[353] using mature Navy missiles
- LRHW (Long range hypersonic weapons) and SLRC (Strategic long range cannon) fires are to range well in excess of 1000 miles
- Long Range Precision Fires (LRPFs) is a systematic program to extend the artillery's range.[354] In 2018 tests showed the range was doubled.[209][355]
- The current Paladin (M109A6) cannon range is doubling (M109A7).[356]:minute 2:30[357] An operational test of components of Long range cannon (LRC) is scheduled for 2020.[358] LRC is complementary to Extended range cannon artillery (ERCA),[358][354] the XM1299 Extended Range Cannon Artillery howitzer.[339] Baseline ERCA enters service in 2023.[359][360][350][340] Investigations for ERCA in 2025: rocket-boosted artillery shells:[209] 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.[361] The TRADOC capability manager (TCM) Field Artillery Brigade - DIVARTY has been named a command position.[Note 3]
- An autoloader for ERCA's 95-pound shells is under development at Picatinny Arsenal,[339] to support a sustained firing rate of 10 rounds a minute from ERCA.[350] A robotic vehicle for carrying the shells is a separate prototyping effort at Futures Command's Army Applications Lab.[339][362]
- The Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is slated to replace the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) in 2023.[209] PrSM flight testing is delayed beyond 2 August 2019, the anticipated date for the expiration of the INF Treaty, which set 499 kilometer limits on intermediate-range missiles.[363] (David Sanger and Edward Wong project that the earliest test of a longer range missile could be a ground-launched version of a Tomahawk cruise missile,[364] followed by a test of a mobile ground launched IRBM with a range of 1800–2500 miles before year-end 2019.[364][365]) The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)[366] was approved 9 December 2019, which allows the Pentagon to continue testing such missiles in FY2020; Paul McCleary points out that Congress will still need an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) for the prospective missile acquisitions.[365] The Lockheed PrSM prototype flew its 10 December 2019 first launch at White Sands Missile Range, in a 150-mile test, and an overhead detonation; the Raytheon PrSM prototype is delayed from its planned November launch,[352] and Raytheon has now withdrawn from the PrSM risk reduction phase.[367] The PrSM's range and accuracy, the interfaces to HIMARS launcher, and test software, met expectations.[352][368] Baseline PrSM enters service in 2023.[369][359][360]
- 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.[370][371][372] Loren Thompson points out that a spectrum of medium-range to long-range weapons will be available to the service by 2023;[360] RCCTO's prototype Mid-Range Capability (MRC) battery will field mature Navy missiles, likely for the Indo-Pacific theater in FY2023.[353] 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.[373][374] These weapons will likely require planning for new Army (or Joint) formations.[360]
- The Long range hypersonic weapon (LRHW) will use precision targeting data against anti-access area denial (A2AD) radars and other critical infrastructure of near-peer competitors by 2023.[375][74] LRHW does depend on stable funding.[343][71][376]
- Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) 7.0 is the vehicle for an 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.[69] The Long range hypersonic weapon (LRHW)[375] glide vehicle is to be launched from transporter erector launchers.[69][377][71] Tests of the Common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) to be used by the Army and Navy were meeting expectations in 2020.[86]
- 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.[125][126]
- Three flight tests of LRHW were scheduled in 2021;[380] that plan was changed to 1 test in late 2021, followed by a multi-missile test in 2022.[359]
- The kill chains will take less than 1 minute, from detection of the target, to execution of the fires command;[341] these operations will have the capability to precisely strike "command centers, air defenses, missile batteries, and logistics centers"[347] nearly simultaneously.[348]
- Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) portfolio:[386]
- At Yuma Proving Ground (YPG), Firestorm (a Project Convergence AI node)[387][388][389] sent targeting coordinates to Remote Weapons Stations, which were proxies for the Robotic Combat Vehicles and Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicles. A CROWS was slewed to the aimpoint, awaiting the human commander's order to fire.[390] Firestorm aids and partakes of the Common operational picture (COP) shared by the AI hub at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.[390][391] Satellite-based, F-35 based, and Army ground-based targeting data were shared in real-time during Firestorm's operation with the AI hubs to produce effects at YPG.[392][393]
- Firestorm was made possible by a mesh network — improvising an MEO (medium earth orbit at 1200 mile altitude), and then a GEO (geosynchronous earth orbit at 22,000 mile altitude) satellite link between JBLM (Joint Base Lewis-McChord) to YPG (Yuma Proving Ground).[394]
- Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV): in Limited User Tests[382][295] General purpose variant supports Blue force tracking[52]:p.40
- An Advanced Powertrain Demonstrator, compact enough for AMPVs, Bradleys, OMFVs, or RCVs, can generate 1,000 horsepower from diesel.[395] Alternatively, the demonstrator can generate electrical power: 160 kiloWatts for SHORAD high-energy lasers, or for propulsion of a 50-ton vehicle in quiet mode, for brief periods.[395]
- A ground mobility vehicle competition, bids closing 26 October 2018[396]
- The JLTV was approved for full rate production in June 2019.[397] Joint Modernization Command (JMC) is supporting a TCM Stryker study on the optimum number of JLTVs for light infantry brigades.[398]
- AFC's Futures and concepts center is proposing a strategy to guide the electrification of the GCVs, using the JLTV as an example for a step-by-step pathway and transition plan for electrification.[399][400][48][49] Lorne Thompson cautions that electrification per se could harm further fielding due to scope creep in specifications for the JLTV.[401]
- The Maneuver CDID (MCDID) is undertaking the requirements development for electrification of Tactical and Combat Vehicles in September 2020;[402] General Wesley had previously announced a plan in April 2020 for the modernization of Tactical and Combat Vehicles using the JLTV electrification plan as a prototype template of the electrification process.[402][48]
- After prototype JLTV electrification, the Army is seeking ideas for an electrified Light Reconnaissance Vehicle (LRV) by 2025.[403] The LRVs would complement the Infantry Squad Vehicles (ISVs),[403] electrified versions of Stryker ICVDs (Infantry Carrier Vehicle - Dragoon) which are already fielded.[404]
- The JLTV was approved for full rate production in June 2019.[397] Joint Modernization Command (JMC) is supporting a TCM Stryker study on the optimum number of JLTVs for light infantry brigades.[398]
- Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF):[405][406] approved by joint requirements oversight council.[382] Two vendors were selected to build competing prototype light tanks (MPF), with contract award in 2022.[407] A unit of 82nd Airborne Division will begin assessment of prototype MPFs beginning in March 2020.[408]
- Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV):[168] soliciting input, in requirements definition stage; the 2018 requirement was that 2 OMFVs fit in a C-17.[382][409][48][49] A request for proposal (RFP) for a vehicle prototype was placed 29 March 2019.[168][410] On 16 January 2020 the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle solicitation was cancelled, as a middle tier acquisition in its early stage; the requirements and schedule are being revisited.[177] The FY2021 budget request has been adjusted accordingly.[293][411]
- An Army development team will not be an OMFV competitor as of 17 September 2020.[412]
- Robotic Combat Vehicles (RCVs):[413][168] General Murray envisions that by FY2023 critical decisions will be made on RCVs after years of experimentation.[118][414]
- Next Generation main battle tank:[415] § Futures
- Future Vertical Lift (FVL)[48][12][416]
- The FVL CFT has secured approval for the requirements in all four of its Lines of Effort:[417][418]
- Future Vertical Lift will use the DoD modular open systems approach (MOSA),[12][419] an integrated business and technical strategy in FARA,[420][421][422][423][424] and in FLRAA:[425][426][176] Both FLRAA and FARA are to enter service by Fiscal Year 2030.[427]
- Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD): prototypes by two teams to replace UH-60 with Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA).[428] The tilt-rotor FLRAA demonstrator by Bell is flying unmanned (October 2019); it logged 100 hours of flight testing by April 2019.[429] Both Bell and Sikorsky-Boeing received contract awards to compete in a risk reduction effort (CDRRE) for FLRAA in March 2020.[430][429][431] The risk reduction effort will be a 2-phase, 2-year competition. The competition will transition technologies (powertrain, drivetrain and control laws) from the previous demonstrators (JMR-TDs) of 2018–2019 to requirements, conceptual designs, and acquisition approach for the weapon system.[430][432] The Aviation PEO would then be able to present an acquisition strategy to the Acquisition Executive (potentially a full and open competition for FLRAA in a future Fiscal Year).[430][433][434]
- The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) is smaller than FLRAA. The Army issued requests for proposals (RFPs) for FARA.[435] RFPs were due in December 2018;[436][437][421][438] in April 2019, the Army awarded 5 Other transaction authority (OTA) contracts[439] to vendors with a Milestone C in 2028.[440][441] Each agreement spans the entire acquisition process, from design, to prototype, to flight test, to low-volume production, to fielding, to full-rate production (Milestone C);[440][442] but each agreement is subject to cancellation, if need be. Competing FARA demonstrators will also be built by Bell, and by Sikorsky, in three year efforts beginning in 2020.[443][444]
- Future tactical unmanned aircraft systems (FTUAS): drones which do not require runways.[445][446][447][448]
- Under Secretary McCarthy notes that Soldier feedback remains an item for discussion in the Future Vertical Lift CFT.[449][450][44] UH-60s are serving as surrogate FARAs for experiments designed to pierce the enemy's anti-access/area denial (A2AD) environment, and bring a mesh network forward.[418]
- In the 2020 Project Convergence at Yuma Proving Ground, Air-launched Effects (ALEs), 8 drones simultaneously launched from the FARA surrogates. The ALEs spanned a 40-mile front; the ALE drones served as sensors which spotted targets and guided long-range artillery fires across the 40-mile front.[451]
- The FARAs, which can be flown unmanned, are meant to be flown at low altitudes to avoid detection, but have a deeper, wider horizon than ground-based materiel. Next year, in 2021 ALEs can be expected to guide other Long range precision fires (LRPFs), such as a PrSM, with its 300-mile range. LRPFs could also be tested to see how much farther a front can be widened.[451]
- The FVL CFT has secured approval for the requirements in all four of its Lines of Effort:[417][418]
- Mobile, Expeditionary Network: In Fiscal Year 2019, the network CFT will leverage Network Integration Evaluation 18.2[452] for experiments with brigade level scalability.[453] Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) "is not a new or separate network but rather a concept"—PEO C3T.[454] Avoid overspecifying the requirements for Integrated Tactical Network[460] Information Systems Initial Capabilities Document. Instead, meet operational needs,[461][453][142] such as interoperability with other networks,[462][207]:minute 26:40[459] and release ITN capabilities incrementally.[463][52][454]
- Up through 2028, every two years the Army will insert new capability sets for ITN (Capability sets '21, '23, '25, etc.).[464][52][454] and take feedback from Soldier-led experiment & evaluation.[469]
- Firestorm was made possible by a mesh network — improvising an MEO, and then a GEO satellite link between JBLM to YPG.[394] There are plans to have a Project Convergence 2021.[134][470] The Army fielded a data fabric at Project Convergence 2020; this will eventually be part of JADC2.[471]
- Five Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF) awards have been 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.[472][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.[473][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.[474][94]
- An Army leader dashboard from PEO Enterprise Information Systems is underway.[475][476] The dashboard has been renamed Vantage.[477] 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.[478] 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.[240][478][479]
- Fort Irwin, Fort Hood, 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.[480]
- Air, Missile Defense (AMD):[481][482][483][14] Schematic 6-layer Air Defense dome, one of multiple arrays linked by Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System(IBCS)
- Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS)[52]:p.42 second limited user test is scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter of FY20.[483][484] On 1 May 2019 an Engagement Operations Center (EOC) for the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) was delivered to the Army, at Huntsville, Alabama.[485] IAMD[486][487] is intended to integrate the following:
- Lower tier air and missile defense sensor (LTAMDS)[483] —PEO RCO is accelerating LTAMDS experimentation by downselecting to two competitors with award by 2023[488][Note 2][489] The fielding aim for LTDAMDS is 2022.[490]
- Indirect fire protection capability (IFPC) Multi-mission launcher (MML)[496]
- Maneuver short-range air defense (MSHORAD)[483][497] with laser cannon prototypes in 2020,[498] fielding 50 kW lasers on Strykers[116][375] in 2021 and 2022 to two battalions per year.[98][499] [500]High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL-TVD) 2019
- F-35,[501] Aegis, Patriot, LTAMDS, and THAAD radars will interoperate.[491][91] On 30 August 2019 at Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein atoll, THAAD Battery E-62 successfully intercepted a medium range ballistic missile (MRBM), using a radar which was well-separated from the interceptors;[502][503] the next step tested Patriot missiles as interceptors[486] while using THAAD radars as sensors;[502] a THAAD radar has a longer detection range than a Patriot radar.[502] THAAD Battery E-62 engaged the MRBM without knowledge of just when the medium range ballistic missile had launched.[502][503]
- In July 2020 a Limited user test (LUT) of IBCS was initiated at WSMR; the test will run into mid-September.[504] The LUT was originally scheduled for May but was delayed to handle the COVID-19 safety protocols.[484] The first of several LUTs of IBCS, by an ADA battalion was successfully run in August 2020.[505] IBCS successfully integrated data from two sensors (Sentinel and Patriot radars), and shot down two drones (cruise missile surrogates) with two Patriot missiles in the presence of jamming;[505] In the week after, by 20 August 2020 two more disparate threats (cruise missile and ballistic missile) were launched and intercepted;[506][507] the ADA battalion then ran hundreds of drills denoting hundreds of threats for the remainder of the IBCS tests (the increased effort occupied the entire unit);[508] the real-world data serve as a sanity check for Monte Carlo simulations of an array of physical scenarios amounting to hundreds of thousands of cases.[348][509] IBCS created a "single uninterrupted composite track of each threat" and handed off each threat for separate disposition by the air and missile defense's integrated fire control network (IFCN).[510] The same battalion running the LUT, for both IBCS, and LTAMDS radar, is scheduled to run the Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOTE) in 2021,[504][511] and running well into 2022.[509]
- In September 2020 a Joint exercise against cruise missiles demonstrated AI-based kill chains which can be formulated in seconds.[341] One of the kills was by a howitzer.[341]
- In July 2020 a Limited user test (LUT) of IBCS was initiated at WSMR; the test will run into mid-September.[504] The LUT was originally scheduled for May but was delayed to handle the COVID-19 safety protocols.[484] The first of several LUTs of IBCS, by an ADA battalion was successfully run in August 2020.[505] IBCS successfully integrated data from two sensors (Sentinel and Patriot radars), and shot down two drones (cruise missile surrogates) with two Patriot missiles in the presence of jamming;[505] In the week after, by 20 August 2020 two more disparate threats (cruise missile and ballistic missile) were launched and intercepted;[506][507] the ADA battalion then ran hundreds of drills denoting hundreds of threats for the remainder of the IBCS tests (the increased effort occupied the entire unit);[508] the real-world data serve as a sanity check for Monte Carlo simulations of an array of physical scenarios amounting to hundreds of thousands of cases.[348][509] IBCS created a "single uninterrupted composite track of each threat" and handed off each threat for separate disposition by the air and missile defense's integrated fire control network (IFCN).[510] The same battalion running the LUT, for both IBCS, and LTAMDS radar, is scheduled to run the Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOTE) in 2021,[504][511] and running well into 2022.[509]
- Although on 21 August 2019 the Missile defense agency (MDA) cancelled the $5.8 billion contract for the Redesigned kill vehicle (RKV),[512][513][514][91] the Army's 100th Missile Defense Brigade will continue to use the Exo-Atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV). The current Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) programs continue per plan, with 64 ground-based interceptors (GBIs) in the missile fields for 2019. C2BMC (Command and Control Battle Management and Communications), was developed by the Missile defense agency (as a development organization) and is integrated with GMD, as demonstrated by FTG-11 on 25 March 2019.[515]:15:00
- 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.[517][70] A 300 kilowatt laser demonstrator (HEL-IFPC) effort supersedes the HEL TVD (after the critical design review).[518][498][519] System test at White Sands Missile Range in 2023.[520]
- Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS)[52]:p.42 second limited user test is scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter of FY20.[483][484] On 1 May 2019 an Engagement Operations Center (EOC) for the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) was delivered to the Army, at Huntsville, Alabama.[485] IAMD[486][487] is intended to integrate the following:
- Soldier Lethality:[523]
- Next-generation squad weapon: Expect 100,000 to be fielded to the Close Combat Force:[15] Infantry, Armor, Cavalry, Special Forces, and Combat engineers. Tests at Fort Benning in 2019. —Chief of Staff Milley[524]
- Nine thousand systems, with two drones apiece are being purchased over a three-year period for the 9-man infantry squads heading to Afghanistan.[525]
- Enhanced night vision goggles (ENVG)-B, will be fielded to an Armor brigade combat team (ABCT) going to South Korea in October 2019[526][527][15]
- Synthetic training environment (STE)—a CFT devoted to an augmented reality system[231][528] to aid planning, using mapping techniques, even at squad level[529][530] will begin fielding by 2021.[531][229][532] In October 2019 the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) prototype is being used by Special Operations for planning actual missions.[533][233] Development for the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) is to be accelerated to meet MDO and JADC2 training demands.[534]
Enterprise campaign planning
In 2019 DoD planners are exercising DOTMLPF in planning, per the National Defense Strategy (NDS),[535] in the shift from counterinsurgency (COIN) to competition with near-peer powers.[535] The evaluations from planners' scenarios will be determining materiel and organization by late 2020.[535][99][536][537]
Futures Command is formulating multiyear Enterprise campaign plans, in 2019.[538][220] 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.[538][539][540][541]
Futures
AFC faces multiple futures,[542] both as threat and opportunity. The Army's warfighting directive, viz., "to impose the nation's political will on its enemy" —Chief of Staff Milley, is to be ready[23] for multiple near-term futures.[543] Under Secretary McCarthy notes that Gen. Murray functions as the Army's Chief Investments Officer[141] (more precisely, its "chief futures modernization investment officer").[183]:Section 4[Note 2][47] Funding for the top six priorities could mean that existing programs might be curtailed.[544]
In the top six priorities:
- LRPF Long range precision fires[545][546]
- Hypersonic materiel development:[67] the Strategic long range cannon (SLRC), for a hypersonic projectile,[360][547] is meant to have a range up to 1,000 nautical miles.[548] An early ballistic test took place at Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, as announced at AUSA in October 2019.[548] (See Identification friend or foe (IFF), Blue force tracking)
- Targeting with thousand-mile missiles,[201][88][241][103] "streamlining the sensor-shooter link at every echelon"—BG[551] John Rafferty,[88] in Integrated fire[552][553]
- NGCV Next generation combat vehicle
- Much smaller and lighter ground combat vehicles, optionally unmanned[236] (See Dedicated short-range communications (DSRC)) for robotic vehicles[554] Small Multipurpose Equipment Transport (S-MET) candidate robotic mules for transporting infantry squad equipment[555]
- If robotic combat vehicles (RCVs) do not need to be manned, neither would they need to be armored; use of sensors and batteries could replace the armor.[556][557] Soldiers have learned to remotely operate the weapons on such RCVs in several days;[556] 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.[556] Modified Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M113s at Fort Carson went through unit-level operations to gain experience with RCVs in July and August 2020.[558] Future breaching operations will be affected in detail by the robotic breaching concept, according to the panel at the AUSA October 2020 meeting.[559]
- In October 2020 the Army's Chief of Staff reminded the force that "The time is now" to modernize for the future, including how the Army develops the systems themselves;[560] if a soldier can now use IVAS to shoot around corners and hit the target, if soldiers and their units can use STE (synthetic training environment) to depict the mission's terrain and train for the mission before the conflict occurs, if deploying robotic reconnaissance vehicles at the time of the mission can smoke out defenses before committing manned combat vehicles against those defenses, then even light vehicles can transport soldiers in conflict, and precision fires can neutralize threats against those soldiers in a conflict. STE can depict these scenarios.[561]:min 14:01[562]
- 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 JLBM (Joint base Lewis-McChord), is getting modernization training on the robotic complex breaching concept (RCBC),[563] and the command post computing environment (CPCE)[564] from Joint modernization command (JMC) training staff.[565]
- Create decisive lethality:[566][567][118] Robotic experiments[568][569]
- Jen Judson reports that Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley is proposing that the brigades begin to electrify their vehicles using hybrid,[570] or all-electric propulsion,[400][571] or perhaps other mobile power plants.[572]
- 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.[573] As of August 2020, the RCVs are able to perform limited waypoint navigation; multiple vehicles can be controlled by one human operator.[573]
- 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.[574]
- Create decisive lethality:[566][567][118] Robotic experiments[568][569]
- Much smaller and lighter ground combat vehicles, optionally unmanned[236] (See Dedicated short-range communications (DSRC)) for robotic vehicles[554]
- FVL[575] "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[196]
- The FARA (Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft) scout helicopter prototypes are to be designed to fly along urban streets, to survive air defenses.[440] Five design vendors were selected, with downselect to two for prototyping by February 2020.[440]
- These aircraft are envisioned as platforms for utilizing sensor networks to control and enable weapons delivery, as demonstrated in a 2019 experiment.[576][577] 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;[578] a forward air launch of an unmanned sensor aircraft (UAS) from a helicopter was demonstrated at YPG as well.[579]
- Mobile & Expeditionary Network / MDO Multi-domain operations[35][291]
- 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)[105][580][95][581]
- ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) needs to match the range of the upcoming LRPF (Long range precision fires) and thousand-nautical-mile missile standoff capability of the Army.[582] Soldiers on the ground are now able to receive satellite ISR.[393]
- Cybersecurity[583][584][585][586] RAND simulations show Blue losses[98]
- Cyber warfare[587] / urban warfare[99][588][589][590] / Underground warfare / Multi-domain combined maneuver[594]
- Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT)[595][596] 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.[597]
- An A-PNT event is scheduled at WSMR for August 2019[52]:pp220–3[598]:Positioning, Navigation and Timing Assessment Exercise (PNTAX)[599][52]:pp220–1[600][349]
- Prototype jam-resistant GPS kits are being fielded to 2nd Cavalry Regiment in EUCOM before year-end 2019.[197] 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.[601]
- A Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) is under development.[602][114][173]
- 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[603]
- 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).[604]
- 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".[605]
- 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.[606]
- 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.[181]
- 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)[105][580][95][581]
- Air,Missile Defense[609]
- Integrated Air and Missile Battle Command System (IBCS)[610] award, including next software build.[611][103] $238 million also funds initial prototypes of the command and control system for fielding in FY22.[483]
- Hypersonic glide vehicle launch preparations,[74] beginning in 2020, and continuing with launches every six months.[69]
- 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.[576][612][417]
- Integrated Air and Missile Battle Command System (IBCS)[610] award, including next software build.[611][103] $238 million also funds initial prototypes of the command and control system for fielding in FY22.[483]
- Soldier lethality
- Sensor-to-shooter prototype for multi-domain battle, 2019 operational assessment: Air Force RCO / Army RCO / Network CFT[128][129][130]
- Night vision goggles thermal polarimetric camera.[613] Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS)[621]
- 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.[622]
- 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.[623]
- CCDC ARL and MIT researchers are formulating atomically thin materials to be layered upon soldiers' equipment and clothing for MDO information display and processing.[624]
- Integrated, wearable cabling for capabilities such as IVAS, NGSW, or Nett Warrior are under development;[625] the potential exists to reduce 20 pounds of batteries to half that weight.[626]
- CCDC ARL is undertaking an Essential research program (ERP) in the processes underlying Additive manufacturing (3D printing), which is applicable to munitions.[627]
- Natick Soldier RDEC has awarded an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract to prototype soldier exoskeletons which augment human leg strength under harsh conditions.[628][629][630]
- Plans for the Infantry squad vehicle (ISV) are underway.[631][632] An ISV is meant to be airdropped for a squad of 9 paratroopers.[633] The GM design was selected; first unit is expected at 1/82nd AB division in February 2021.[634]
- Assured pointing, navigation and tracking (A-PNT) devices are being miniaturized, with increased redundant positioning sources. This aids wearability.[599][52]:pp220–3
- In September 2019 in the Maneuver CoE's Battle Lab at Fort Benning, OneSAF simulations[635] 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.[635]
Other Armies
The British Army is also investigating innovations, such as robots and drones, including 70 technologies funded by a $1 billion (£800 million) innovation fund launched in 2016.[636] Two hundred troops will engage in "surveillance, long-range, and precision targeting, enhanced mobility and the re-supply of forces, urban warfare and enhanced situational awareness".[636]
"By 2020 the Army's programs for modernization were now framed as a decades-long process of cooperation with allies and partners,[637][638] for competition with potential adversaries who historically have blurred the distinction between peace and war,[639]" — from: Reorganization plan of United States Army
- In 2020, one measure of military power projection ranks the competition between the armies of the world (after the US Army, which is ranked atop this list).[640][641] The list of armies, a mixture of allies, partners, and competitors is estimated to be:
- Russia[640] jammed the GPS signal during NATO exercises in November 2018.[642][197][643] In 2014 the DoD's research and engineering chief Alan Shaffer warned that the 'US lost dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum'[644] (EMS), in part due to the US government selloff of EMS radio frequencies, and also due in part to the proliferation of digital technologies which allow for low-cost jammers.[644] (See: meaconing)[645][646] General Valery Gerasimov advocates hybrid warfare, a "blend of political, economic and military power to bear against adversaries".[647][648][649] Russia took Crimea without firing a shot.[650] In April 2020 Russia tested an anti-satellite system for Low earth orbit (LEO) satellites.[651][652][653] Cyber attacks on the whole of the US government via Supply_chain_attack § Whole of government began in March 2020, but only reached the attention of the news media on 14 December 2020.[654][655]
- China[640] — RAND simulations show Blue losses.[98] Six of the top 15 defense companies in the world are now Chinese, in 2019 for the first time.[656] The competition with China is being shaped in the current decade 2010–2020, according to David Kriete.[657][658][659] In 2017 China adopted the National Intelligence Law which obligates Chinese companies to subordinate themselves to intelligence-gathering measures for the state.[660] China is militarizing the South China Sea.[650] The 30th BeiDou satellite was meant to complete China's own global navigation satellite system;[661] as of June 16, 2020 the launch of a BDS-3 satellite is postponed.[662] The Defense Intelligence Agency projects that China will at least double its nuclear arsenal and that its production capability will be far expanded in the 2020s.[663] Secretary Mark Esper said that China is aiming to be the dominant military power in Asia by 2049.[664] The 14th five year plan (2021-2025) of China's ruling party is to accelerate the army's modernization and informationization, in order to improve national security for 2027 (100th anniversary of its ruling party), according to Dean Cheng.[665]
- India — faces Pakistan;[640] Pakistan can be supplied with Turkey's drones (such as the Bayraktar TB2), which were used with great effect by Azerbajian against Armenian tanks and Armenian air defense[666] during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.
- Japan — faces North Korea[640][156]
Headquarters (HQ) and commander
On 13 July 2018, U.S. Army Secretary Mark Esper said AFC's headquarters would be based in Austin, Texas.[667] AFC spreads across three locations totalling 75,000 square feet;[137] one of the locations in a University of Texas System building at 210 W. Seventh St. in downtown Austin,[668][669] on the 15th and 19th floors.[670] The UT Regents will not be charging rent to AFC until December 2019.[670] The command began initial operations on 1 July 2018.[671]
On 16 July 2018, Lieutenant General John M. Murray was nominated for a fourth star and appointment as Army Futures Command's first commanding general.[672][673] His appointment was confirmed 20 August 2018[674] and he assumed command during the official activation ceremony of AFC on 24 August 2018, in Austin, Texas.[137]
Value stream
The AFC commander, in a hearing before Congress' House Armed Services Committee, projects that materiel will result from the value stream below, within a two-year time frame,[19] from concept to Soldier. The commanding general is assisted by three deputy commanders.
- the Futures and Concepts Center,[216] was led by AFC deputy commanding general Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Eric Wesley,[675][79] who is seeking 4 value streams for reducing the time invested to define a relevant requirement:[269][48][49]
- Science and technology (S&T: discovery / collection of ideas with usable effects)[676][306]
- Experiments (Testing of a system to a known expectation of effects, or else observation of that system, in the absence of a specific expectation of effects)
- Concepts development[47] (Development of a relevant idea about that system)[223][219]
- Requirements development (Development of the terms and conditions for that system)[37]
- Combat Development element,[250][677] Army Futures Command.[216] Lt. Gen. James M. Richardson is the deputy commander. He assists the commander with efforts to assess and integrate the future operational environment, emerging threats, and technologies to develop and deliver concepts, requirements, and future force designs to posture the Army for the future.[678][231][275]
- 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)[218][223] prototype and analyze the concepts to test.
- JMC is capable of providing live developmental experiments to test those concepts or capabilities, "scalable from company level to corps, amid tough, realistic multi-domain operations".[139][24][104]
- RDECOM becomes the Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), part of the Combat Development element, on 3 February 2019.[250][55][211][679][48][49]
- Combat Systems Directorate[677] was to be led by the ASA(ALT)'s Principal Military Deputy[680][681] (Principal Military Deputy (PMILDEP) to the ASA(ALT))[183]:AD2018–15,6b:PMILDEP will additionally be AFC director, Combat Systems [195] who will produce those developed solutions and seek feedback.[51][682]
- 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.[450]
- Combat Systems refines, engineers, and produces the developed solutions from Combat Development.[683][684]
- An analysis by AMSAA can then assess that concept or capability, as a promising system for a materiel development decision.[184]
... what I do think you will see is some of the capabilities the cross-functional teams are working will be in production and being delivered and in the hands of soldiers in the next two years" —Gen. John "Mike" Murray (2018).[19]
Army Chief of Staff Milley is looking for AFC to attain full operational capability (FOC) by August 2019.[28][34][62]
I think we have been actually executing the mission for the last six to eight months if not longer.[26] —Gen. John "Mike" Murray, 19 July 2019
Commanding General
No. | Commanding General | Term | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Portrait | Name | Took office | Left office | Term length | |
1 | General John M. Murray | 1 July 2018 | Incumbent | 2 years, 217 days |
See also
- Reorganization plan of United States Army - Four major commands
- Military acquisition#In the United States
- Artillery: Long Range Precision Fires
- Armor: Next Generation Combat Vehicle
- Aviation: Future Vertical Lift
- Signal: Mobile and Expeditionary Network
- Air and Missile Defense
- Infantry: Soldier Lethality
- Manhattan Project
- Command systems in the United States Army
Notes
-
The capabilities as prioritized by the Chief of Staff, will use Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in the realms of requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment, using CFTs for:
- Improved long-range precision fires (artillery):—(Fort Sill, Oklahoma) Lead: BG John Rafferty ... PEO Ammunition (AMMO)
- Next-generation combat vehicle—(Detroit Arsenal, Warren, Michigan) Lead: BG Ross Coffman ... PEO Ground Combat Systems (GCS)
- Vertical lift platforms—(Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama) Lead: BG Wally Rugen ... PEO Aviation (AVN)
- Mobile and expeditionary (usable in ground combat) communications network (Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland)
- Network Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence— Lead: MG Pete Gallagher ... PEO Command Control Communications Tactical (C3T)
- Assured Position Navigation and Timing— (Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama) Lead: William B. Nelson, SES
- Air and missile defense—(Fort Sill, Oklahoma) Lead: BG Brian Gibson, ... PEO Missiles and Space (M&S)
- Soldier lethality
- Soldier Lethality—(Fort Benning, Georgia) Lead: BG David M. Hodne ... PEO Soldier
- Synthetic Training Environment —(Orlando, Florida) Lead: MG Maria Gervais ... PEO Simulation, Training, & Instrumentation (STRI)
- Above, 'dotted line' relationship (i.e., coordination) is denoted by a ' ... '
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (23 October 2018) Army Futures Command Wants YOU (To Innovate)
- —Adam Jay Harrison's list for types of Funding Authority
- Tribune staff (22 August 2019) Colonel named division artillery director TCM to do what needs to be done across the Army for MLRS, HIMARS
References
- Futures Command reveals new insignia as it 'forges' ahead; by Sean Kimmons, Army News Service; dated 6 December 2018, last accessed 3 February 2019
- Army Futures Command: Meet Our Leadership
- Thomas H. Todd, III (July 2020) Deputy Commanding General for Acquisition and Systems Management
- Army Futures Command Task Force (Wednesday, 28 March 2018) Army Futures Command
- Vergun, David A. (13 July 2018). "Austin to be U.S. Army Futures Command location, says Army". Army.mil. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
- Army Directive 2017-33 (Enabling the Army Modernization Task Force) (7 November 2017) References Decker-Wagner 2011
- Vergun, David A. (7 December 2017). "US Army Futures Command to reform modernization, says secretary of the Army". Army.mil. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
- Roper and Grassetti (1 October 2018) Seizing the High Ground – United States Army Futures Command
- Capt. Steve Draheim and Maj. Paul Santamaria (22 June 2018) Long-range, short term
- Ed Lopez (21 June 2018) Picatinny Arsenal, PEO (AMMO) Army modernization advances with early team collaboration
- John Liang (27 August 2018) Inside the Army highlights
- New Army aircraft will be durable, lethal, unmanned for modern conflicts
- Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (22 July 2019) CCDC's road map to modernizing the Army: the network 4th in a series
- MG Cedric T. Wins (09.10.2019) CCDC’S road map to modernizing the Army: air and missile defense DVIDS release
- (10 September 2019) Same CCDC text but with 3 more images
- Bridgett Siter, Communications Director, Soldier Lethality CFT (10 September 2019) Soldier Lethality team delivers first big win for AFC Enhanced night vision goggle - binocular (ENVG-B) significantly aids marksmanship by the Close Combat Force
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (16 September 2019) Army Issues Next-Gen Targeting Goggles Freedberg's commentary on ENVG-B —Targeting goggles for infantrymen
- Maj. Gen. John A. George, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (2 January 2020) CCDC's Road Map to Modernizing the Army: Soldier lethality
- (6 Oct 2017) Army Directive 2017-24 (Cross-Functional Team Pilot In Support of Materiel Development)
- Phillip B. Fountain, U.S. Army Futures Command (8 October 2019) Army Futures Command to highlight modernization efforts at 2019 AUSA
- Matthew Cox (14 Sep 2018) Head of Army Futures Command Fields Tough Questions From Congress
- Michael A. Grinston, James C. McConville, and Ryan McCarthy (October 2019) 2019 Army Modernization Strategy as cited by Sydney Freedberg, Jr. (16 October 2019) Army Launches 16-Year Plan To Tackle Russia, China Summary
- Source: Organization, United States Army. For detail, see AR10-87
- Army Commands, Army Service Component Commands, and Direct Reporting Units ARN2541_AR10-87_WEB_Final.pdf section 20-2a, p.27
- Arpi Dilanian and Matthew Howard (1 April 2019) The number one priority: An interview with Gen. Mark Milley: Readiness (both current and future)
- Gen. David G. Perkins, U.S. Army (Nov-Dec 2017) Multi-Domain Battle: The Advent of Twenty-First Century War
- Sébastien Roblin (11 Oct. 2019) China's stealth drones and hypersonic missiles surpass — and threaten — the U.S.
- Binkov (11 Oct 2019) New game changing weapons shown at Chinese military parade; October 2019 Binkov explains and animates Hypersonic glide trajectories for under-the-radar operation; Binkov estimates which weapons displays are mockups; Compares and contrasts Chinese, Russian, and US capabilities
- Scott Maucione (19 July 2019) Army Futures Command fully operational, dinged by GAO on announcement
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (10 July 2019) Embracing a new culture at Army Futures Command
- DVIDs video, 24 August 2018 press conference
- Army Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (26 February 2019) FY20 budget proposal realigns $30 billion
- Sydney J Freedberg Jr (29 May 2019) Army Big 6 Gets $10B More Over 2021-2025
- Michael A. Grinston, James C. McConville, and Ryan McCarthy(2019) 2019 Army Modernization Strategy revision 7, CFTs' 31 signature efforts
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (19 September 2019) Can Army Control Costs Of Its New Weapons? Currently the Army has 692 programs of record
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (14 March 2019) Army ‘Big Six’ Ramp Up in 2021: Learning From FCS
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (11 January 2019) 12 Moments Of Truth For Army Modernization In 2019
- TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1 (6 December 2018) The U.S. Army in Multi-Domain Operations 2028 "describes how US Army forces, as part of the Joint Force, will militarily compete, penetrate, dis-integrate, and exploit our adversaries in the future."
- APG News (13 June 2018) News Briefs: The U.S. Army Modernization Strategy
- CRS Insight (IN11019) (17 January 2019) The U.S. Army and Multi-Domain Operations
- Todd South (11 August 2019) This 3-star Army general explains what multi-domain operations mean for you "think, assess and employ all domains when necessary"— General Wesley
- Yasmin Tadjdeh (10/10/2018) Army to Focus on Defeating Enemies’ Standoff Capabilities Summary of standoff
- Sydney Freedberg, Jr. (14 January 2020) Army Chief Seeks ‘Minimally Manned’ Vehicles, Joint C2 LRPF, ITN, IBCS, FARA, FLRAA, and "We need a joint command and control system" —Army Chief of Staff James C. McConville
- [35][36][37][38][39]
- MDO Challenge (15 May 2019) *Start here* MDO 101 General explanation of multi-domain operations (MDO) for the layman
- Sean Kimmons (October 9, 2018) After hitting milestones, Futures Command looks ahead to more
- AUSA 2018 CMF #1: Army Futures Command Unifies Force Modernization DVIDS video of panelists Gen. Murray, Sec. McCarthy, Dr. Jette, and Trae Stephens
- US Army (2020) AMERICA’S ARMY: READY NOW,INVESTING IN THE FUTURE FY19-21 accomplishments and investment plan
- Andrew Smith (9 Apr 2020) Convergence within SOCOM – A Bottom-Up Approach to Multi Domain Operations
- Sydney Freedberg, Jr. (26 March 2018) Army Outlines Futures Command; Org Chart In Flux
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (25 October 2017) Can The Pentagon Protect Young Innovators? Fixing the 'up or out' culture, which favors generalists
- Lt. Col. Thomas "Bull" Holland, PhD, U.S. Army (15 January 2019) Proposed Army Futures Command Process Tenets
- 'Scientific research is a fundamentally different activity than technology development';
- Incorporate 'scientific research into "Appendix C: Functional Concepts" and specify pathways for technology development';
- Buy into the 'fail fast' mentality;
- '6.3-funded projects to produce knowledge (technical data) that can be consumed by requirements developers as opposed to PMs';
- Use 'evidence-based requirements process' (early hypothesis testing) with citations for evidence:
- All projects will be executed in no less than two increments.
- No new requirements once an increment is started.
- Summary: 'advances on the battlefield requires comprehensive, coordinated changes in the entire acquisition system';
- The RAND Corporation (2000) Discovery and Innovation: Federal Research and Development in the Fifty States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico RAND MR1194 Appendix B: Government-Wide and DOD Definitions of R&D See Appendix B p.615 for DOD Financial Management Regulation (Volume 2B, Chapter 5)
- Neil Hollenbeck and Benjamin Jensen (6 December 2017) Why the Army needs a Futures Command Enable a culture of experimentation, and develop concepts and technology together.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (13 Sep 2018) Futures Command Won’t Hurt Oversight, Army Tells Congress
- ASA(ALT) Weapon Systems Handbook 2018 update Page 32 lists how this 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
- Sydney Freedberg (7 May 2018) Permanent Evolution: SecArmy Esper On Futures Command
- JP-1 p.xxi has the definition of operational control (OPCON). Note that "command authority may not be delegated" (COCOM being command authority). p.xxii has the definition of administrative control (ADCON): one application being coordinating authority.
- see also C. Berry (3 May 2010) Understanding OPCON . (COCOM is the legal authority of a combatant commander (CCDR).) OPCON, on the other hand, "is derived from the authorities of COCOM and delineated in JP-1".
- Army R&D Chief: ‘I Don’t Think We Went Far Enough’ – But Futures Command Can
- Scott Maucione (14 Sep 2018) Army leaders ask for trust in lieu of metrics for Futures Command
- David Vergun, Army News Service (13 October 2017) Cross-functional teams to spearhead modernization, says McCarthy: allocated money in Program Objective Memorandum (POM) to protect resources.
- Arpi Dilanian and Matthew Howard (31 August 2018) Modernizing at the speed of relevance: An interview with Under Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy
- Sydney Freedberg, Jr. (14 August 2018) Inside Army Futures Command: CFT Chiefs Take Charge
- Sydney Freedberg (29 August 2018) Army Futures Command: $100M, 500 Staff, & Access To Top Leaders
- (22 April 2018) New Army Futures Command success hinges on relationship building
- GAO report: GAO-19-132 (23 Jan 2019) ARMY MODERNIZATION: Steps Needed to Ensure Army Futures Command Fully Applies Leading Practices
- Gary Sheftick, Army News Service (11 February 2019) Army aligning modernization programs with other services
- David Vergun, Defense.gov (21 February 2020) Military leaders discuss hypersonics, supply chain vulnerabilities
- In, for example Waverider hypersonic weapons delivery, China has flown a Mach 5.5 vehicle for 400 seconds, at 30 km altitude, demonstrating large-angle deviations from a ballistic trajectory, as well as recovery of the payload. See
- 3 August 2018 China tests hypersonic aircraft Starry Sky-2 --Xingkong-2 (Starry-sky-2) first flight
- China successfully tests first hypersonic aircraft that can .. Youtube clip XingKong-2 hypersonic aircraft (Starry Sky-2)
- USSTRATCOM John Hyten statement 05:03, 8 August 2018 (UTC)
- (15 Jun 2018) Lockheed Martin Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon (HCSW) Missile for US Air Force
- Chris Martin (17 Dec 2019) Lockheed awards $81.5M contract for hypersonic missile motor to Rocketdyne for HCSW $81.5M, ARRW
- NPR (23 October 2018) Nations Rush Ahead With Hypersonic Weapons Amid Arms Race Fear
- DOV S. ZAKHEIM, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR (08/26/19) Putin built a hypersonic arsenal, while the Pentagon slept
- Colin Clark (19 June 2019) Raytheon, Northrop Will ‘Soon’ Fly Hypersonic Cruise Missile Paris Air Show, new additive-process materials to build the combustor of a scramjet; potential integration among members of an intercommunicating swarm of hypersonics systems
- Stephen Carlson (14 Nov 2018) DARPA issues contract proposition for hypersonic missile defense
- Sydney Freedberg, Jr. (22 August 2018) Army Warhead Is Key To Joint Hypersonics
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (31 May 2019) Joint hypersonic weapon tests to start next year
- Colin Clark (24 May 2019) Army Moves Out On Lasers, Hypersonics: Lt. Gen. Thurgood
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (28 Feb 2020) Army Ramps Up Funding For Laser Shield, Hypersonic Sword In FY2021 HELs funding is up 209 percent; LRHW funding is up 86 percent. RCCTO spending is $1 billion in 2021.
- Joe Lacdan (16 October 2018) The Army joins the Air Force, Navy in attempt to develop hypersonic weaponry
- Kelley M. Sayler, Analyst in Advanced Technology and Global Security. Congressional Research Service R45811 (11 July 2019) Hypersonic Weapons: Background and Issues for Congress Lists names for hypersonics programs
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (30 August 2019) Hypersonics: Army Awards $699M To Build First Missiles For A Combat Unit prototypes— Dynetics: Common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB); Lockheed: Long range hypersonic weapon (LRHW)
- [68][69][70][71][72][73][74]
- Mary Kate Aylward (5 February 2019) Experiments in hyperspeed more on Prompt Global Strike
- Megan Eckstein (3 November 2017) Navy Conducts Flight Test to Support Conventional Prompt Strike From Ohio-Class SSGNs 1st hypersonic glide vehicle test (Flight experiment 1)
- [72][76][77]
- (15 August 2018) Army Futures Command aims to tap into innovative culture in Austin and beyond
- Long-range precision fires modernization a joint effort, Army tech leader says
- Aaron Gregg (2 August 2019) In conversations with investors, defense firms double down on hypersonic weapons As of August 2019, Lockheed reports $3.5 billion in hypersonics work, while Raytheon reports $1.6 billion; Boeing declined to give the value of its hypersonics awards.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (1 March 2018) DoD Boosts Hypersonics 136 % In 2019: DARPA
- Jon Harper (4 March 2020) JUST IN: Pentagon to Spend Billions Mass-Producing Hypersonic Weapons "Aero shells that provide thermal protection for the high-speed platforms will be a key component of the systems"
- [81][82][83][84][74]
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (20 Mar 2020) Hypersonics: Army, Navy Test Common Glide Body "The U.S. Navy and U.S. Army jointly executed the launch of a common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB), which flew at hypersonic speed to a designated impact point"
- DoD (20 March 2020) Department of Defense tests hypersonic glide body "The C-HGB – when fully fielded – will comprise the weapon's conventional warhead, guidance system, cabling, and thermal protection shield." Also: comments from LTG L. Neill Thurgood RCCTO
- Haley Britzky (14 August 2019) The Army is getting a new $130 million hypersonics playground in Texas
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (11 September 2018) Aiming The Army’s Thousand-Mile Missiles Multi-domain Ft Sill
- John L. Dolan, Richard K. Gallagher & David L. Mann (23 April 2019) Hypersonic Weapons – A Threat to National Security Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS)
- Kris Osborn (16 December 2019) Pentagon Advances New Technology to Destroy Hypersonic Missile Attacks HBTSS will "establish a continuous 'track' on approaching hypersonic missiles"
- Melanie Marlowe (8 April 2020) Three obstacles are slowing space sensors for hypersonic threats Continuous tracking is needed to maintain custody of a hypersonic threat before its disposition.
- David Brennan (27 Jan 2021) Pentagon Orders Hypersonic Missile Trackers Amid Russia, China Arms Race HBTSS awards to L3Harris; Northrup Grumman
- Theresa Hitchens (24 February 2020) 2021 Budget Will Finally Fully Fund Next-Gen OPIR, Says Roper Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) replacement: three satellites in Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) and two satellites in a polar orbit
- Jen Judson (20 August 2019) US Missile Defense Agency boss reveals his goals, challenges on the job Increase the discrimination of the radars and other sensors. Use Large aperture sensors. Use Space-based missile sensors. An SM-3 Block IIA missile test against ICBM is scheduled for 2020. Plan out the detection, control and engagement; the sensors, the command-and-control, the fire control, and the weapons (the kill vehicles).
- Theresa Hitchens (9 October 2020) SDA Missile Tracking A ‘Strategic Win’ For L3Harris, SpaceX
- [89][90][91][92]
- Anthony Small, U.S. Army Futures Command (13 March 2019) Futures Command Deputy Commanding General talks the U.S. Army's Future at South by Southwest U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley, Deputy Commanding General (DCG), Army Futures Command describes 'convergence'.
- Todd South (13 September 2019) Massive simulation shows the need for speed in multi-domain ops "400 participants working with 55 formations, 64 concepts and 150 capabilities"
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (7 December 2018) Army Multi-Domain Update: New HQs, Grey Zones, & The Art of The Unfeasible
- [36][94][95][96]
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (7 March 2019) US ‘Gets Its Ass Handed To It’ In Wargames: Here’s A $24 Billion Fix Army prepositioned stocks (APS) vulnerability
- Arpi Dilanian and Matthew Howard (31 August 2018) An interview with retired Gen. David McKiernan
- Matthew Cox (28 April 2018) How Future Combat Systems Failed
- Army Futures Command (28 February 2020) Joint All Domain Command and Control AFC is the functional lead representing the Army in JADC2's development
- [24][98][99][100][101]
- I Corps has I2CEWS Battalion or Intelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare and Space Battalion —Joe Lacdan (6/19/2019) Army leaders say service must shore up its space defense
- US Army (4 Sep 2018) U.S. Army Pacific Commander Gen. Robert Brown: State of the Pacific
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (30 November 2018) Artificial Intelligence: Forget The Terminator For Future Army: LTG Wesley
- Association of the U.S. Army (7 Sep 2018) AUSA Aviation Hot Topic 2018 - PANEL 1 - Multi Domain Maneuver
- Jason Cutshaw (USASMDC) (8 August 2019) Leader gives space and missile defense update at SMD Symposium Integrated fires across domains
- Stephen Clark (8 August 2019) Atlas 5 launch adds to U.S. military’s secure communications satellite network Air Force’s fifth AEHF — Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite
- Office of the Chief of Public Affairs (10.16.2019) 2019 AUSA Warriors Corner - TacticalSpace: Delivering Future Force Space Capabilities
- Paul McLeary (18 December 2019) MDA Kickstarts New Way To Kill Hypersonic Missiles MDA's Hypersonic Defense Weapon System - 4 Interceptors
- [108][109][89][110]
- Kathryn Bailey, PEO C3T Public Affairs (26 November 2019) The Army gathers industry to inspire network modernization Network Cross-Functional Team (N-CFT) and PEO C3T hosted 670 industry partners at the Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM) 4, Capability Set (CS) 23.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (15 May 2019) How To Wage Global Cyber War: Nakasone, Norton, & Deasy
- Theresa Hitchens and Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (7 August 2019) Army Seeks Small Satellites To Support Ground Troops 3 programs: Gunsmoke, Lonestar and Polaris.
- Theresa Hitchens (12 October 2020) SMDC Pushes For New PNT, Tracking Sat Payloads In addition to the 3 LEO satellite programs mentioned above, SMDC's technical center is working on project TITAN (Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node), a "common, mobile ground station" for the Army's tactical needs.
- Jen Judson (4 June 2019) Coming soon to the US Army: Combat-capable hypersonic and laser weapons
- Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (7 June 2019) Army accelerates delivery of directed energy, hypersonic weapon prototypes
- Kerensa Crum, CCDC Aviation & Missile Center Public Affairs (14 August 2019) Leader updates Army’s modernization priorities Standoff
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (25 June 2019) Robotic combat vehicles could change way Army looks, fights
- Kelly Morris (Rucker) (1 August 2019) Aviation Industry Days: Army Aviation aims for more lethal Multi-Domain Operations capability Maj. Gen. David J. Francis, USAACE and Fort Rucker commanding general: MDO to defeat standoff
- [117][38][118][119]
- Theresa Hitchens (2 December 2019) Hey SDA, AFRL Boosts Space-Based Internet Tests
- Joseph Lacdan, Army News Service (21 October 2019) AFC deputy: Combined capabilities make military might more lethal
- Office of the Chief of Public Affairs, US Army (10.16.2019) 2019 AUSA Warriors Corner - TacticalSpace: Delivering Future Force Space Capabilities
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (5 August 2020) Army Tests New All Domain Kill Chain: From Space To AI
- Initially, satellites feed data to TITAN.
- Prometheus, which is AI software, combs through the data for potential threats and targets.
- SHOT, which is also software, tracks each target on a custody list, correlating each target's current location, signature, and threat assessment, with a list of candidate fires countermeasures, ranked by capability, range to the target, kill radius, etc. "SHOT then computes the optimal match of weapons to targets", and passes the list to AFATDS.
- Human commanders choose whether to fire, or not, from the list of fires assets (Nelson notes that ERCA and Grey Eagle drones are to be added to the list of fires assets— currently M777 howitzers and MLRS 270 rocket launchers in the upcoming tests, August 2020).
- satellites perform Battle damage assessment, to update the list of threats and targets.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (14 August 2020) Can Army Intel Data Feed The Kill Chain? Quickly pooling data will take AI and cloud—"Project Convergence"
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (22 November 2019) SecArmy’s Multi-Domain Kill Chain: Space-Cloud-AI Army Multi-Domain Operations Concept, December 2018 slide from TRADOC pam 525-3-1
- Claire Heininger (9 August 2018) Army, Air Force team on sensor to shooter prototype for multi-domain battle
- Mark Pomerleau (11 April 2018) In the move to multi-domain operations, what gets lost? The space, cyber, and information domains transcend geographic AoRs
- Dan Gouré (2 August 2019) Army Futures Command’s Report Card After Its First Year Need: MDO doctrine in DoD, Two theater operation at island & continent, augment BCTs with higher echelon capability
- [127][35][128][129][95][130][107][74]
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (16 July 2020) Army Says Long Range Missiles Will Help Air Force, Not Compete
- Joseph Lacdan, Army News Service (25 September 2020) Army to build on results from first Project Convergence exercise
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (25 Sep 2020) Longer-Range Missiles & More AI: Project Convergence 2021 PrSM, AFATDS to F-35
- Patrick Tucker (24 Sep 2020) Inside the Army’s Fearless, Messy, Networked Warfare Experiment Murray: Army software factory will start contributing.
- Joe Lacdan (1 October 2020) Army, Air Force form partnership, lay foundation for CJADC2 interoperability
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (15 August 2018) Army Futures Command aims to tap into innovative culture in Austin and beyond
- Dan Lamothe (14 July 2018) Why the Army decided to put its new high-tech Futures Command in Texas
- Maj. Brett Lea,24th Press Camp Headquarters (5 Sep 2018) "Army establishes Futures Command; U.S. Army JMC at Fort Bliss is operational arm" Fort Bliss Bugle
- Army Directive 2018-18 (Army Artificial Intelligence Task Force in Support of the Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center) 2 October 2018
- Lauren C. Williams (14 Sep 2018) Army Futures Command to set up DIU-like innovation lab
- Dan Lafontaine, CCDC C5ISR Center Public Affairs (7 November 2019) Army leaders get firsthand look at C5ISR Center research, development projects
- David Vergun, Army News Service (10 October 2018) Army Futures Command to become 'global command,' says its leader
- Joe Lacdan, Army News Service (4 April 2019) Allies to join Army Futures Command
- (12 February 2019) SUMMARY OF THE 2018 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY
- Ashton Carter (2012-11-21) Autonomy in Weapon Systems Most recent DoD guideline: 2012
- Terri Moon Cronk (13 December 2018) Artificial intelligence experts address getting capabilities to warfighters
- (1 February 2019) Carnegie Mellon Hosts Activation of U.S. Army AI Task Force. Brigadier General Matt Easley is Director of Army Artificial Intelligence task force (A-AI TF)
- Gary Sheftick (13 August 2019) AI Task Force taking giant leaps forward Coordinating with: NREC, Talent management task force, the CFTs, and DOD's Joint AI Center
- Douglas Scott (6 August 2019) New wearable authentication more than a "token" gesture Tactical Identity and Access Management (TIDAM) see Army AI task force (A-AI TF)
- U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs (27 February 2020) Army researchers enhance AI critical to Soldier-machine teamwork Explainability & tellability: coalition situational understanding (CSU) & human-agent knowledge fusion (HAKF)
- RDECOM Research Laboratory Public Affairs (18 December 2018) Black Hawk helicopter pilot interns with Army researchers
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (11 September 2020) JAIC Wants AI ‘Victory Gardens’ Across DoD
- Theresa Hitchens (25 September 2019) IC Must Embrace Public Data to Use AI Effectively: Sue Gordon IC is the Intelligence Community
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (12 August 2019) Big Data For Big Wars: JEDI vs. China & Russia
- DAISHI ABE and RIEKO MIKI (14 Aug 2020) Japan wants de facto 'Six Eyes' intelligence status: defense chief
- [154][113][155][129][127][35][156]
- Andrew Eversden (7 August 2020) A human F-16 pilot will fight against AI in an upcoming contest
- Theresa Hitchens (20 August 2020) AI Slays Top F-16 Pilot In DARPA Dogfight Simulation The AI systems are eventually to serve as wingmen for human commanders.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (12 August 2020) Deloitte Wins $106M JAIC Contract To Build AI Toolkit
- Aaron Mehta (23 Sep 2020) Hyten to issue new joint requirements on handling data by using JROC-specified Capabilities stated in high-level natural language rather than relying on traditional item-by-item Requirements documents
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (3 Sep 2020) AI’s Data Hunger Will Drive Intelligence Collection Army's Chief data officer: In the Future, "every Soldier is a Chief data officer"
- Kelsey Atherton (14 August 2020) DARPA Trains AI To Understand Humans – In Minecraft
- Army Futures Command (Friday, August 21, 2020) Army Software Factory
- USAF Assistant Secretary of Acquisition, Chief Software Office (19 Dec 2019) SpaceCAMP USAF Software Factory
- AI TF Artificial Intelligence Task Force
- Technology Review (19 December 2016) The Pentagon's Innovation Experiment
- Gary Sheftick, Army News Service (3 April 2019) Army 'Shark Tank' enabling quick prototyping of new systems
- Devon L. Suits (11 December 2018) Army secretary approves new Intellectual Property Management Policy
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (15 March 2019) IP Rights For Robot Tanks: NGCV To Test-Drive New Policy
- David Vergun (29 March 2018) Army network modernization efforts spearheaded by new Cross-Functional Teams. The Army conducts a network demonstration at Fort Bliss, Texas. The Army is pursuing network modernization through Cross-Functional Teams.
- (27 June 2018) U.S. Army to host tactical Cloud computing industry forum
- Nathan Strout (30 Nov 2019) Can hundreds of unrelated satellites create a GPS backup?
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (3 August 2018) Army leveraging industry ideas to modernize network
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (21 June 2019) Army Wrestles With Testers Over Network Upgrades
- Jen Judson (4 April 2019) US Army plans to field a future long-range assault helicopter by 2030 FLRAA
- RFI posted on the Federal Business Opportunities, 4 April
- Contract award: fourth quarter of FY21
- preliminary design review (PDR) second quarter of FY23
- first flight in the third quarter of FY24
- critical design review (CDR) in the fourth quarter of FY24
- fielding to first unit in second quarter of FY30
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (21 January 2020) Army ‘Fully Committed To Replacing The Bradley’: Gen. McConville Bradley fighting vehicle replacement is still a project
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (23 January 2020) Bradley Replacement: Did Army Ask For ‘Unobtainium’?
- U.S. Army Public Affairs (16 January 2020) Army decides to cancel current OMFV solicitation
- U.S. Army Public Affairs (7 February 2020) Army aggressively moves forward on OMFV, seeks industry input on path forward "We are not releasing a prescribed set of requirements -- we are describing the problem set and giving industry the freedom to be creative and innovative in their approach" —Gen. John (Mike) Murray
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (26 February 2020) OMFV: Army Seeks Industry Advice On Bradley Replacement
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (20 March 2020) xTechSearch: Army Picks Top 10 Tech Innovators
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (13 April 2020) COVID-19: Army Tries Prizes To Get Ventilator Tech ASAP
- U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs (13 April 2020) Redditors revive interest in 1960s Army emergency ventilator invention
- Michael Howard (11 September 2020) Technology Providing Navigation in GPS-Denied Environment wins Grand Prize in xTechSearch Competition
- Ms. Karen Diane Kurtz (ASA (ALT)) and Steven Y. Lusher (JPEO CBRND PAO) (8 October 2018) ASA(ALT) Participates in U.S. Army Futures Command Panel at AUSA
- Army Directive 2018-15 (U.S. Army Futures Command Relationship With the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) and DCS G-8, 27 August 2018
- Richard Simonetti (23 April 2018) "US Army turns to new technologies"
- Acquisition process: Materiel development decision (MDD)
- (24 October 2019) Army Pushes 600 Programs From Acquisition To Sustainment
- USArmy tweet: Futures Command will have the overarching objective to achieve clear overmatch in future conflicts, making Soldiers and units more lethal to win the nation's wars, then return home safely.
- Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) ASA(ALT)—Org Chart as of May 2020 see also February 2020, and 11/5/19, as well as Org Chart as of 11/26/18
- Mr. Craig A. Spisak, Director, Acquisition Career Management (3 October 2018) A vigorous talent management strategy keeps the acquisition workforce prepared for threats
- Jacqueline M. Hames, U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (31 January 2020) TWI: worth it Training with Industry: a work-experience program for Army Acquisition officers (from captain to lieutenant colonel). "After their TWI rotation, officers are expected to identify industry best practices and implement them at their next duty station"
- A sample career path here: Aviation Engineering director to SES
- (1 Aug 2018) Military (Officer) Corner: Army Acquisition Centralized Selection List
- (29 Apr 2015) Army Acquisition Corps Recognized
- [189][190][191][192][193]
- Ms. Audra Calloway (Picatinny) (19 September 2018) With new Army Futures Command, senior acquisition leader discusses role of Program Executive Offices
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (24 January 2019) Bell V-280 Flies 322 MPH: Army Secretary Praises Program
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (6 June 2019) Army Fields Anti-Jam GPS In Germany This Fall
- Secretary of the Army, Mark T. Esper, ESTABLISHMENT OF UNITED STATES ARMY FUTURES COMMAND Army General order G.O.2018-10
- Nancy Jones-Bonbrest, Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (14 June 2019) Partnering for speed: Army rapid prototyping office hosts industry open house
- Jen Judson (13 March 2019) Army Rapid Capabilities Office is getting a new name and mission
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (19 March 2019) Army Sets 2023 Hypersonic Flight Test; Strategic Cannon Advances
- Sydney J Freedberg (2 Oct 2020) Army Tripled OTA Prototyping To $4.8B In Just 3 Years: GAO
- [199][70][200][67][88][115][201] tripling between 2017 and 2019.[202]
- Team White Sands Organizations (TWSO)
- For example,
- Request for ATEC Acquisition Support Form
- or Rapid evaluation of a capability
- or Private industry test
- (January 2011) Implementing Acquisition Reform: The Decker-Wagner Army Acquisition Review
- DoD (16 May 2018) Army Officials Testify on FY 2019 Budget Request
- U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (4 February 2019) CCDC Research Laboratory
- Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, CG RDECOM (25 September 2018) RDECOM's road map to modernizing the Army: Long-range precision fires
- Argie Sarantinos-Perrin (17 October 2018) RDECOM at the forefront of creating a more modern, lethal Army
- "... another thing we’ve not done very well — is doing the prototyping and experimentation with soldiers from the beginning, so we got soldier input into a program before it ever becomes a program of record" —Gen. 'Mike' Murray: Freedberg (31 Jan 2019) Army Completes Biggest Reorg In 45 Years: Can Futures Command End Weapons Disasters?
- Ms. Jacqueline M. Hames, USAASC (10 October 2018) Get that moving truck ready
- Futures Command locations
- University Communications (23 May 2019) UT Austin Becomes Major Research Hub for Army Futures Command Robotics, AI, hypersonics, and biodefense
- [27][5][28][94][214]
- YouTube clip (7 December 2018) ARCIC Transition of Authority Ceremony 7 Dec 2018 to Futures and Concepts Center, AFC
- (2016) ARL locations
- Tisha Swart-Entwistle (6 December 2018) TRAC makes official move to Futures Command
- Mission Command Battle Lab
- Jen Judson (26 February 2018) US Army’s war-gaming is under-resourced, three-star says
- Headquarters, Dept of the Army (July 2019) ADP 6-0 Mission Command: Command and Control of Army Forces 4 chapters. See also ADP 3-0; ADP 6-22; FM 6-22; ADP 1-1; and ADP 5-0
- Mission Command Center Of Excellence (MC-CoE CDID)
- TRADOC Analysis Center. Combined Arms training center. Fort Leavenworth
- Dr. Charles K. Pickar, Naval Postgraduate School (October 29, 2019) An exercise to experience Experential learning
- Army ALT Magazine (January 29, 2019) Then And Now: Training for the Future —Retired Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, 32nd vice chief of staff of the Army: "I believe that a training environment .. should be a maneuver trainer, and it should be a gunnery trainer."
- Spc. William Griffen (20 February 2020) HHBN masters the fundamentals of convoy escort
- Maj. Anthony Clas, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division Public Affairs (10/31/2019) Regulars’ battalion masters the fundamentals during squad live-fire exercise
- Maj. Gen. Maria R. Gervais (31 August 2018) The Synthetic Training Environment revolutionizes sustainment training
- Jacqueline M. Hames and Margaret C. Roth (14 January 2019) Virtual battlefield represents future of training Training as a service; more content at scale needed.
- Army ALT Magazine (29 January 2019) THEN AND NOW: TRAINING FOR THE FUTURE critique
- By Patrick D Morgan (TRADOC) (18 March 2019) STE CFT Cuts Ribbon in Orlando
- Patti Bielling (3 December 2019) Army pursuing improved realism in live and virtual training Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC) in Orlando; Institute for Creative Technology (ICT) in Playa Vista; Synthetic Training Environment Cross Functional Team (STE CFT); Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI);
- Jen Judson (17 May 2019) US Army’s jumping to the next level in virtual training reconfigurable virtual collective trainers (RVCTs)
- Cyber CoE - (its CDID)
- Maneuver CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab)
- Bob Purtiman, NGCV Cross-Functional Team (17 September 2018) Preparing for future battlefields: The Next Generation Combat Vehicle
- Aviation CoE - (its CDID)
- Fires CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab)
- Col. Yi Se Gwon, Fort Sill Fires Bulletin (September-October 2018) The Army Multi-Domain Targeting Center
- Army Multi-Domain Targeting Center (16 July 2019) Target Mensuration Only
- Maj. Anthony Clas, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division Public Affairs: (SEPTEMBER 4, 2019) Target Mensuration course: Bulldog Brigade trains target acquisition with precision Target Mensuration Only (TMO) Including TMO in a unit training plan
- Mitch Meador, Fort Sill Tribune (August 27, 2020) Lawton Fort Sill welcomes 'Fires Five,' families
- Five honorees and their families
- First hypersonic battery comes in 2021
- Extended-Range Cannon Artillery is coming
- IBCS is coming
- DOTMLPF-P formulated at Fort Sill —Mitch Meador, Fort Sill Tribune (August 13, 2020) Ceremony recognizes new Air Defense Artillery capability manager
- Karen Flowers, Fort Sill Tribune (4 September 2020) Air defense Army Capability Manager gets new director
- [238][239][240][241][242][243]
- Intelligence CoE - no information on its CDID
- Maneuver Support CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab)
- Sustainment CoE CDID not found
- APG Guide (12 January 2019) Aberdeen Proving Ground 2019 Your road map to the ‘Home of Innovation’ with more than 90 tenant organizations
- (12 September 2018) ASA(ALT) MilDep talks APG’s role in Futures Command Paul Ostrowski is PMILDEP to ASA(ALT)
- Argie Sarantinos-Perrin, CCDC HQ Public Affairs (31 January 2019) RDECOM transitions to Army Futures Command
- Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (22 August 2019) Army showcases new electronic warfare tech PEO IEW&S, PNT, EWPMT, VMAX, VROD
- Caitlin O'Neill, PM PNT staff writer (17 November 2017) Army's PNT programs transition to PEO IEW&S
- Dan Lafontaine, C5ISR Center Public Affairs (19 November 2019) C5ISR Center hosts CCDC commander for town hall, lab tours "a renewed emphasis on collaboration across CCDC's eight research centers"
- RCCTO is located in Huntsville (26 August 2019): RCCTO- About us
- Thomas Brading, Army News Service (23 August 2019) Soldiers 'at the heart of' modernizing warfighter gear
- Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs (25 February 2019) Army-funded researcher wins Nobel Prize
- Argie Sarantinos-Perrin, CCDC (21 August 2019) Army develops cold spray technology to repair Bradley gun mounts
- U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs (16 December 2019) Army releases top 10 list of coolest science, technology advances
- U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs (3 February 2020) Army develops big data approach to neuroscience Dr. Jonathan Touryan, co-author
- The Cognition and Neuroergonomics Collaborative Technology Alliance
- Automated EEG mega-analysis I: Spectral and amplitude characteristics across studies NeuroImage Volume 20, 15 February 2020, 116361
- (19 Sep 2018) Automated EEG mega-analysis II: Cognitive aspects of event related features
- [256][257][258][259]
- (15 April 2016) US Army Research Lab Opens at USC ICT in Playa Vista
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (8 August 2014) Pentagon Struggles To Get Small-Biz Tech: FCS misuse of OTA, other acquisition issues.
- Dan Lamothe Washington Post (2018-07-12) Army to unveil details about new Futures Command in biggest reorganization in 45 years
- Thomas E. Ricks (MARCH 2, 2015)Why hasn’t the Army’s regular acquisition process produced anything in decades? --Future of War conference.
- Arpi Dilanian and Matthew Howard Army.mil (6 September 2018) Safer, smarter, faster: An interview with Gen. James McConville
- "US edge has eroded to a dangerous degree"
- [264][100][265][266][33]
- US Army Futures Command to reform modernization, says secretary of the Army
- Army has picked a location for its new Futures Command, but now comes the hard part
- Association of the United States Army (AUSA): Scott R. Gourley (Friday, 13 January 2017) CLOSING THE CAPABILITIES GAP: SEVEN THINGS THE ARMY NEEDS FOR A WINNING FUTURE
- GAO report: GAO-17-457 (Jun 2017) ARMY CONTRACTING Leadership Lacks Information Needed to Evaluate and Improve Operations
- Bruce Jette, Building the Army of the future
- Hannah Wiley (6 April 2018) Program cuts likely under Army secretary's new Futures Command
- Jen Judson (17 July 2018) US Army asks Congress to shift millions in FY18 dollars. What’s behind the request?
- David Vergun (5 September 2018) Richardson confirmed as Futures Command deputy commander
- Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (28 March 2018) CHIPS Articles: Army Secretary defines goals for coming decade — modernization, Futures Command
- Jeff Martin (15 October 2018) How did the Army find $25 billion for new equipment? video
- Daniel Goure (18 October 2018) Can Trump Rebuild The Military As Deficits Balloon?
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (26 October 2018) Joint Experiments Will Pick Budget Winners & Losers: Dunford Task is to cut $33 Billion from 2020 budget
- Youtube: What will $716 Billion Buy You? US Defense Budget 2019 Weapons
- Michael J. Meese (23 Dec 2016) Chapter 4 : The American Defense Budget 2017–2020 Note Fed chart 1970-2026
- PAUL MCLEARY (26 October 2018) Trump Orders DoD To Take Surprise $33B Budget Cut 2020 DoD budget cut from $733 billion to $700 billion
- PAUL MCLEARY (14 November 2018) The Pentagon’s First-Ever Audit: A Big Disappointment?
- Wesley Morgan (9 December 2018) Trump reverses course, tells Pentagon to boost budget request to $750 billion
- PAUL MCLEARY (23 July 2019) Esper Confirmed As SecDef; Budget Deal Leaves DoD Spending Flat Next Year
- United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) (September 2018) DEFENSE MANAGEMENT. DOD Needs to Address Inefficiencies and Implement Reform across Its Defense Agencies and DOD Field Activities
- [276][277][278][279][280][281][282][283][284][29][30][285][286][287]
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (24 October 2019) Sec. Army Interview: ‘We Have To Get This Budget Deal’
- Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (22 November 2019) SecArmy looks toward FY21 budget as continuing resolution impacts priorities CR avoids shutdown until 20 December 2019.
- Todd South, Military Times (8 May 2019) 4 things the general in charge of the Army's newest command says are needed to win the wars of the future
- Amy McCullough (7 Feb. 2020) What to Look for in the 2021 Budget Request
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (10 February 2020) Army Boosts Big Six 26%, But Trims Bradley Replacement FY2021 budget request
- FY2021 budget request: Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (13 February 2020) Army budget request eyes $2B boost for modernization
- $10.6 billion for modernization in 2021 request, up from $8.5 billion in 2020
- LRPF: $1700 million
- FVL: $514 million
- OMFV: $328 million
- MPF: $135 million
- LTAMDS: $376 million
- IFPC $236 million
- $10.6 billion for modernization in 2021 request, up from $8.5 billion in 2020
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (4 Dec 2020) NDAA: Conference Cuts New Army Tech, Pluses Up Old Cuts in IVAS, OMFV, AMPV, IFPC. Increases in Stryker, Lasers, UASs. Top 6 modernization prorities are unscathed.
- Mark Cancian and Adam Saxton (14 February 2020) 2021 Budget Spells The End of US Force Expansion Reduced topline $740.5 billion; Army remains at 31 BCTs, 5 SFABs, and 11 CABs.
- Thomas Brading, Army News Service (19 February 2020) Army leaders save $1.2 billion to fund modernization push After a set of 'Night court' cuts
- Mark Cancian (15 May 2020) Huge Deficit = Defense Budget Cuts? Maybe Not A 5% cut would be $35 billion across DoD in 2021; FY2021 defense budget will likely be passed during a time of free-spending in Congress.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (20 May 2020) Army Braces For Post-COVID Cuts: Gen. Murray 34 Signature Programs: 31 in Futures Command, 3 in RCCTO
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (9 June 2020) Army Study Asks: How Much Modernization Can We Afford?
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (10 June 2020) Army Ponders What To Cut If Budget Drops: Gen. Murray
- [294][295][296][297][298][299][300][301]
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (5 March 2019) Army Bets Big On Service Contracts To Fix Aging IT
- Maj. Gen. Randy S. Taylor, CECOM (8 July 2019) Sustaining data delivery on the future Army network Halt, fix pivot (WIN-T)| ITN: Integrated Tactical Network | IEN: Integrated Enterprise Network
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (7 February 2020) Vice chief of staff: Speed of modernization no longer at 'glacial pace'
- Joyce M. Conant, ARL Public Affairs (19 Feb 2016) ARL West hires its first employee, meet Dr. Benjamin T. Files
- The DOT&E Mission
- Shelby Oakley (26 June 2019) GAO Defends Annual Weapons Review: Let’s Look at All the Facts GAO reply
- DoDI 5000.02: Defense Acquisition Life Cycle Compliance Baseline (Pre‐Tailoring)
- DoD org chart
- Dennis Via, CG AMC (6 April 2016) AMC announces Mission Command alignment
- (10 April 2018) AMRDEC Industry days
- (23 December 2009) About CECOM LCMC
- Megan Paice (26 July 2018) From RDECOM to CECOM
- (June 2016) U.S. ARMY TACOM LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT COMMAND (TACOM)
- Ed Worley(2 November 2018) ACC celebrates 10 years of enabling readiness, modernization Contracting officers are embedded with every CFT
- Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC) 2004
- Ed Worley (1 October 2018) Two contracting centers achieve full operational capability
- Jon Harper (3 April 2020) COVID-19 NEWS: Army Trying to Mitigate Disruptions for Top Modernization Programs
- Devon Suits, Army News Service (7 April 2020) Army looks to keep critical modernization programs on schedule "800 acquisition, logistics, and technology-related programs and nearly 35 key modernization priorities"
- Sydney J. Freedberg, Jr. (23 April 2020) COVID-19 Won’t Slow New Army Weapons: McCarthy, Murray, Jette Subcontractors are holding to their schedules when making up for COVID-19 shutdowns
- Mission Command Center of Excellence (MCCoE)
- Connie Lee (3/26/2019) NEWS FROM AUSA GLOBAL: Army Fleshing Out Updated Modernization Strategy
- Lauren C. Williams (21 Aug 2018) PEO structure survives Army Futures reorg, for now
- Sydney Freeberg (6 September 2018) ‘A Little Bit Disruptive’: Murray & McCarthy On Army Futures Command
- AcqNotes (17 Jan 2017) Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Guide – 17 Jan 2017
- Paul McCleary (31 December 2018) Amidst Turmoil, Pentagon Persists On Acquisition Reform: Ellen Lord
- Mr. Kinsey Kiriakos (ASA (ALT)) (20 November 2019) Army Acquisition Leaders Must "Speak Truth To Power" MTA and OTA
- Jen Judson (10 Oct 2018) Army in final stages of hashing out Stryker lethality requirements at an AROC council in January 2019
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (14 December 2018) Army Bradley Brigade Will Get Israeli Anti-Missile System: Iron Fist
- Lt. Gen. John M. Murray, deputy chief of staff, G-8 (8 September 2016) Modernization vital to joint force success
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (27 August 2018) Can Army Futures Command Overcome Decades Of Dysfunction?
- HQ Dept of the Army (22 July 2011) Army Acquisition Policy Army Regulation 70–1
- Devon L. Suits (19 September 2018) New G-8 embraces streamlining tech acquisition
- Jen Judson (26 March 2018) The next Army program executive office will be the Rapid Capabilities Office
- Jen Judson (7 Oct 2018) Army Rapid Capabilities Office realigned to focus on top modernization priorities
- RCCTO (2019) About Us
- RCCTO (2019) Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office
- Jon Harper (7/17/2019) BREAKING: Army Futures Command to Reach Full Operational Capability by End of Month
- Matt Beinart (21 July 2019) U.S. Army Futures Command To Announce It’s Fully Operational
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (6 March 2020) New Army Cannon Doubles Range; Ramjet Ammo May Be Next BAE delivers 18 ERCA howitzers by 2023
- US Army (27 May 2020) Excalibur Round Precision Hit From 65 kilometers at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground Both the Excalibur precision guided munition and the XM1113 rocket-assisted high explosive projectile were fired from an XM1299 howitzer in March 2020
- Theresa Hitchens (3 Sep 2020) ABMS Demo Proves AI Chops For C2
- Joe Lacdan (19 September 2019) G-8: Army operations in the Pacific crucial to future battlefield success Follow-up on Modernization Reviews is forthcoming, on a regular basis.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (20 September 2019) Congress’ Budget Gridlock Threatens Army Hypersonics G8 is posing a heuristic to get beyond delay in NDAA (national defense authorization act) for 2020 (get Army funding by calendar year-end)
- Jacob Pramuk (27 Sep 2019) Trump signs spending bill to avoid another government shutdown CR funds the government until 21 Nov 2019
- Follow-up FY2021 Budget Request: Thomas Brading, Army News Service (5 March 2020) Hypersonic tests, modernization top Army budget request for funding of the top 6 modernization priorities; progress on the spend plan for tests of the prototypes vs actual spending
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (18 July 2019) Futures Command showcases efforts ahead of upcoming FOC
- [52][33][168][345][38][117]
- Dan Gouré (2 Dec 2020) Army’s Newest Long-Range Fires System Isn’t New, But It Will Be Effective
- Todd South (20 Aug 2020) Army missile defenders defeat cruise and ballistic missiles nearly simultaneously The test created terabytes of data to be queried.
- Caitlin O'Neill, APNT CFT Public Affairs (23 August 2019) APNT CFT Hosts First Annual Assessment Exercise
- Todd South (11 Mar 2020) The Army is ‘making artillery great again’ Landed within 1 meter from over 65 kilometers range. Press conference.
- Ben Wolfgang (22 Dec 2020) Army's long-range cannon hits target 43 miles away
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (10 December 2019) Direct Hit: Army Test-Fires Lockheed Precision Strike Missile EXCLUSIVE
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (6 November 2020) Army Picks Tomahawk & SM-6 For Mid-Range Missiles Tomahawk (missile) and SM-6
- Defense updates (14 Dec 2018) EXTENDED RANGE CANNON ARTILLERY OF U S ARMY- FULL ANALYSIS 5:00 clip. XM1113 shell and XM657 propellant on XM907
- Daniel Cebul (8 October 2018) Army looks to a future of integrated fire LRPF in an Integrated Network of fires, targeting hubs, and sensors: artillery & MSHORAD, IBCS, Patriot, and THAAD radars
- M109A7 has 30-foot barrel and double the range
- David Vergun, Army News Service (13 September 2018) Cross-functional teams already producing results, says Futures Command general, House Armed Services Sub-committee hearing, 13 September 2018
- Nancy Jones-Bonbrest, Army Rapid Capabilities Office (20 September 2018) Army doubles cannon range in prototype demo
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (21 Oct 2020) LRPF: Army Missiles, Cannon Face Big Tests In ’21
- Loren Thompson (7 Aug 2020) Army breakthroughs in Long-range fires raise novel questions about targeting, organization, and command about SLRC, a long-barrelled cannon which uses GPS-guided munitions
- Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (8 May 2019) Army demonstrates extended ranges for precision munitions
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (27 January 2020) Artillery Seeks Robot Ammo Haulers Field Artillery Autonomous Resupply
- Paul McLeary (19 July 2019) Army Readies Long-Range Missile Tests — Post INF
- David Sanger and Edward Wong The New York Times (2 August 2019) US ends cold war missile treaty, to counter arms buildup by China. p.A7
- Paul McCleary (12 Dec 2019) US Busts INF Wall With Ballistic Missile, Puts Putin & Xi On Notice
- NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020 Senate report 116-48
- H.R.2500 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 text
- Nicole Ogrysko (20 December 2019 10:35 pm ) Trump signs shutdown-averting spending bills, makes federal pay raise law The signing occurred in time on that day, which avoided the 11:59pm shutdown trigger
- AMANDA_M_MACIAS (DEC 20, 2019) Trump signs $738 billion defense bill. Here’s what the Pentagon is poised to get
- Jen Judson (25 Mar 2020) Raytheon exits precision strike missile competition by mutual decision of Raytheon's DeepStrike and the LRPF CFT
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (19 Mar 2020) PRSM: Lockheed Long-Range Missile Passes Short-Range Stress Test 3 layers of LRPF are scheduled to enter service in limited numbers in 2023; also explains its relationship to Future vertical lift (FVL) and Mobile & expeditionary network
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (30 Apr 2020) Army: Lockheed PrSM Missile Aces Third Flight Test
- 2023 goal is to deliver 30 PrSMs with 500 km range
- 2025 goal is to use multi-mode seekers against moving targets
- Use open architecture to allow multiple vendors to offer upgrades
- Provide extended range (beyond 650-700 km) within the existing HIMARS MLRS form factor
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (08 September 2020) Army Seeks New Mid-Range Missile Prototype By 2023 1000 mile missile needed.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (14 October 2020) Army Asks Hill For New Mid-Range Missile $$$ ASAP: Thurgood Fund the Mid-Range Capability (MRC) with 2020 Above Threshold Reprogramming (ATR).
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (13 October 2020) China, Russia Threats To Drive What Army Keeps & Cuts: Gen. Murray TRAC needs to produce its reports in 3 months or faster.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (23 October 2020) DARPA’s Hypersonic OpFires Aims For Army 1,000-Mile Missile
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (13 November 2018) Beyond INF: Countering Russia, Countering China (Analysis) Distances in-theater, laid out fot EUCOM and PACOM.
- Ryan Pickrell (5 June 2019) The US Army says it will have hypersonic missiles and laser weapons ready for combat in less than 4 years LRHW announcement
- Corey Dickstein (3 March 2020) Army to fire two hypersonic test shots this year, McCarthy says
- Nancy Jones-Bonbrest, Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) (12 February 2020) Virtual Reality helps Soldiers shape Army hypersonic weapon prototype LRHW
- / Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (26 January 2018) $86,000 + 5,600 MPH = Hyper Velocity Missile Defense
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (10 September 2020) Target Gone In 20 Seconds: Army Sensor-Shooter Test
- Matthew Cox (5 Aug 2020) Army to Speed Up Testing of Planned Hypersonic Missile
- GVSC Public Affairs (7 October 2019) Virtual experiments helping shape Next-Generation Combat Vehicle
- Bob Purtiman, NGCV Cross-Functional Team (17 September 2018) Preparing for future battlefields: The Next Generation Combat Vehicle
- (11 Oct 2017) US Army's Bassett on Trophy Active Protection Decision, AMPV, Future Vehicle Tech
- Marty Beckerman (17 October 2018) A serious participation Trophy
- Defense & Aerospace Report (12 Oct 2016) US Army Ground Combat Systems Chief on Armored Vehicle Programs
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- Spc. Carlos Cuebas Fantauzzi, 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment (11 September 2020) Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team converges efforts during Project Convergence 20 Shortened time developing Common operating picture to 30 seconds
- Sgt. 1st Class Will Reinier (10 September 2020) Campaign of learning: U.S. Army, AFC introduce Project Convergence
- Army Futures Command (Monday, 14 September 2020) Project Convergence
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (16 September 2020) A Slew To A Kill: Project Convergence
- Matthew Cox (20 Sep 2020) Army’s New Target Tracking System Aims to Quicken Artillery Kills "artificial intelligence to improve human decision-making; autonomy; and robotics"
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (24 September 2020) Marine F-35s Share Targeting Data With Army: Project Convergence
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (23 September 2020) Pushing Data ‘From Space To Mud’: Project Convergence
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (21 Sep 2020) ‘Improvised Mode’: The Army Network Evolves In Project Convergence used a mesh network —50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion – Enhanced (ESB-E) was able to improvise a MEO satellite link in June 2020, to complete the link from JBLM to YPG
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (12 Dec 2019) Army Revs Up High-Tech Tank Engine
- Jen Judson (9 October 2018) US Army triggers start of possible ground mobility vehicle competition after long delay
- Program Executive Office for Combat Support & Combat Service Support (21 June 2019) Army approves JLTV Full-Rate Production
- Jonathan Koester, Joint Modernization Command (10 September 2019) Newest Army vehicle arrives on Fort Bliss
- Matthew Cox (22 April 2020) Army Officials Working on Proposal That Could Lead to Electric JLTVs
- Jen Judson (17 Mar 2020) US Army ventures down path to electrify the brigade
- Lorne Thompson (29 Jan 2021) Turning The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle Into A Science Fair Would Be Dangerous For Warfighters
- Matthew Cox (22 Sep 2020) Army Takes First Step Toward Equipping Tactical, Combat Vehicles with Electric Engines
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (7 October 2020) Army Seeks Electric Scout By 2025 ELRV to complement Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel-powered mobile charging sites for these expeditionary vehicles.
- Jeff Martin (2019/10/22) Video: 30mm cannons and a new network: Here's what the Stryker brigade of the future will look like Video interview, Col. William Venable
- Jen Judson (10 Oct 2018) Decision coming soon on who will build prototypes for a new Army light tank
- Youtube: MPF
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (17 December 2018) Army Picks BAE, GD For MPF Light Tank Prototypes: Upstart SAIC Is Out
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (27 June 2019) 82nd Airborne infantry Soldiers to test light tank next year
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (7 February 2020) Army Reboots OMFV, 2026 Deadline Dropped OMFV project starts over again; drops requirement that 2 fit on a C-17 as premature, does not insist on 2026 deadline; approach is less top-down
- Andrew Feickert, CRS Report for Congress, R45519 (10/10/2019) Army's Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) Program: Background and Issues for Congress --Updated 10 October 2019 abstract. Details in pdf
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (10 April 2020) Army Revamps OMFV Bradley Replacement For Russian Front OMFV digital designs by 2023, prototypes by 2025, operational by 2028
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (18 Sep 2020) OMFV: Army Team Won’t Compete For Bradley Replacement
- Army ALT Magazine, Commentary (20 March 2019) Driving the Future
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (20 November 2019) The Army’s Got A Universal Robot Driver
- David Vergun, Army News Service (9 October 2018) Next Generation Combat Vehicles to replace Bradley starting fiscal year 2026
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (April 2019) Army Aviation Modernization $57 billion to modernization 2019-2024. $4.7 billion to Aviation 2019-2024
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (25 February 2020) Future Vertical Lift: Army’s Aerial Vanguard LRPF will be the prime customer for the AI targeting data provided via FVL. The Joint force is also a consumer of this data, provided by FVL's manned or unmanned missions.
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (11 June 2020) Future Vertical Lift pushes forward with new requirements
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (13 March 2020) MOSA: The Invisible, Digital Backbone Of FVL Modular Open System Architecture
- DoD Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA)
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (3 October 2018) Army Wants Revolutionary Scout Aircraft For $30 Million, Same As Apache E FARA Solicitation
- Eric Adams (5 July 2019) The Pirouetting S-97 Raider Makes Your Helicopter Look Lazy
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. and Richard Whittle (23 October 2019) Tilting Wings, Tilting Tailprop, But Not A Tiltrotor: Karem’s FARA Design
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. and Richard Whittle (23 October 2019) Bell 360: Will Slower & Steadier Win The Race For FARA?
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (28 March 2019) FVL: Next Steps For UH-60 & Shadow Replacements In ‘Weeks’
- Sean Kimmons (24 October 2018) Future Vertical Lift projects to build on recent progress FVL Deliverables— 1: Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstration (JMR). 2: Analysis of alternatives (AoA). Phase II award— 2020-2023
- Steve Trimble (24 July 2020) U.S. Army Upgrades Vision For Future Vertical Lift Programs
- FLRAA, JMR-TD: Flight test
- ARL Public Affairs (1 February 2019) Army engineers get hands-on with futuristic tiltrotor aircraft data gathering in process on one prototype (a tiltrotor).
- Jen Judson (9 October 2018) Road to Future Vertical Lift: Defiant preps for first flight, Valor leaves the nest V280 vertical climb record
- First flight for the other prototype (contra-rotating rotors) slipped to 2019, (Aaron Mehta (12 December 2018) First flight for Defiant delayed to 2019) in part because the Army asked that this manufacturer try out automated fiber placement in the rotors, which need to be extremely rigid to minimize vibration.(Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (2 October 2018) SB>1 vs V280)
- If successful, this technique will mean more efficient helicopter production in larger numbers.
- The 2nd manufacturer's prototype December 2018 attempts to first reach 15 hours of reliable ground performance resulted in fixes that affected its fit, form, and function; hence its first flight is expected in 2019; its First flight has occurred. (Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick (21 March 2019) Watch Sikorsky And Boeing's SB>1 "Defiant" Compound Helicopter Fly For The First Time)(Sean Gallagher (3/22/2019) Sikorsky-Boeing joint effort for Army’s assault aircraft program makes first flight)
- The tiltrotor Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator has attained ADS-33 Level 1 responsivenes in internal vendor testing Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (21 May 2019) V-280 Passes Key Agility Test: Bell
- ADS-33: Mark B. Tischler, Christina M. Ivler, M. Hossein Mansur, Kenny K. Cheung, Tom Berger, and Marcos Berrios (4 November 2008) Handling-Qualities Optimization and Trade-offs in Rotorcraft Flight Control Design
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (15 October 2019) 4 Flights, 3 Hours, 20 Knots: Defiant Inches Ahead
- Jen Judson (16 Mar 2020) Army selects companies to continue in long-range assault aircraft competition
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (20 February 2020) We’ve Got Enough Data On Defiant: Sikorsky & Boeing
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (26 February 2020) FVL: Can Army Break The Comanche Curse?
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (17 March 2020) FVL: Bell, Sikorsky-Boeing Split $181M To Finalize FLRAA Designs Leverage the MOSA approach to scale the technical data from the demonstrators for the digital engineering. Use two phases for risk reduction. Present the acquisition strategy to ASA(ALT)— timing and program schedule for fielding in 2030.
- PEO Aviation Public Affairs (18 March 2020) PEO Aviation announces Future Long Range Assault Aircraft Awards under OTA (Other transaction authority) for risk reduction in the design competition for FLRAA program of record scheduled for 2022
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (25 June 2019) Sikorsky Be Nimble: S-97 Raider Shows Off For Army FARA S-97 demo
- Yasmin Tadjdeh (10/11/2018) Army Sees Progress with Future Vertical Lift Projects
- Jen Judson (10 October 2018) Can the Army pull off buying two new helicopters back to back?
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (28 March 2019) Don’t Panic About Apaches: Army Not Junking Gunships
- U.S. Army Futures Command (23 April 2019) Army announces attack reconnaissance aircraft prototype award
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (23 April 2019) FARA: Army Awards 5 Design Contracts; Winner Enters Production in 2028—Awards for Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft designs went to Bell, Boeing, Karem, Sikorsky, and a partnership of AVX and L-3.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (2 October 2019) Bell Unveils Army Scout Helicopter — With Wings
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (3 March 2020) FVL: Boeing Unveils FARA Scout Design All 5 FARA system designs are now revealed
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (27 March 2020) FVL: Army Picks Bell & Sikorsky For FARA Scout "rival prototypes in flight by 2023"
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (26 March 2020) FVL: The Army’s 10-Year Plan For FARA Scout "The Army is urgently developing new air-launched drones, long-range missiles, and electronic architecture to go on the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft that Bell and Sikorsky are vying to build."
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (29 March 2019) Textron, Martin Win $99.5M For Army Scout Drone: FTUAS
- Jen Judson (29 March 2019) US Army picks 2 drones to test as Shadow replacement
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (12 Dec 2019) Rival Shadow Drone Replacements Head To Combat Units For Tests
- Sarah Tate (9 April 2020) Fort Riley Brigade Combat Team kicks off Unmanned Aircraft System Assessment Vertical takeoff and landing drone for replacement of RQ-7 Shadow
- Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team (23 November 2020) Rakkasans help with design of Army’s Future Assault Aircraft Soldier touchpoint.
- Myers (27 March 2018) Abrams: Army units will be tasked to work on each of Futures Command’s priorities
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (12 October 2020) Low, Fast, Networked & Lethal: Future Army Airpower
- PEO C3T 30 May 2018
- Justin Eimers, PEO C3T (3 October 2018) Network Cross-Functional Team, acquisition partners experimenting to modernize tactical network In 2018 MG Bassett became (Program Executive Office Command Control Communications-Tactical) PEO C3T)
- PEO C3T (2018) Integrated Tactical Network "is not a new or separate network but rather a concept"
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (18 November 2019) New Army Network ‘A Revolution’ For Airborne: Commander ITN full brigade Network equipment: PEO slide showing connectivity from BCT command post, down to Fire Team leaders cell phones
- Kathryn Bailey, PEO C3T Public Affairs (19 November 2019) The Army's tactical network empowers advanced goggle platform IVAS is under STP 2-- "In July 2020, STP 3 will fully integrate the ITN with IVAS"
- Jared Serbu (24 August 2018) Army experimenting with SOF-tested equipment while building long-term tactical network plan
- U.S. Army (30 April 2019) Profile: Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T)
- Mark Pomerleau (1 April 2019) How the Army will sustain its tactical network of the future ITN to take advantage of Tobyhanna depot. 5-3-1 model
- [52][454][455][456][457][458][459]
- Mark Pomerleau (21 Jan 2020) What a deployment to the Middle East means for testing a new Army network An operational deployment begun 1 Jan 2020, which won't be instrumented, will provide some Soldier feedback, but instrumented testing is deferred until after redeployment.
- Joe Lacdan, Army News Service (25 October 2018) Interoperability a key focus in building the Army's future network
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (3 April 2019) Multi-Domain Networks: The Army, The Allies & AI: Incremental ITN Capability sets '21, '23, '25
- Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (21 June 2019) New tech, accessibility to improve Army tactical networks
- Amy Walker, PEO C3T (18 June 2019) Modernizing the Network
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (27 August 2019) Uncle Sam Wants YOU To Compete For Army Network Upgrade: CS 21 Multiple Expeditionary Signal Battalion – Enhanced (ESB-E) network hardware sets are being fielded simultaneously to individual companies in the 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion of 35th Signal Brigade/82nd Airborne Division in 2020, to allow maximum testing.
- Amy Walker, PM Tactical Network, PEO C3T (4 December 2019) Global network design unifies Army modernization efforts GAIT: worldwide network mesh —CS21
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (29 August 2019) The Fraying Edge: Limits Of The Army’s Global Network
- [465][466][467][13][468]
- Thomas Spoehr (13 November 2020) Project Convergence: Its Success Could Draw Army Astray Risks-- Opfor, Allies & Joint participation, EW jamming, PrSM launches, JADC2, Joint Forces command is a cautionary example.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (17 Nov 2020) Project Rainmaker: Army Weaves ‘Data Fabric’ To Link Joint Networks CCDC C5ISR built Project Rainmaker to weave together a data fabric which is foundational to JADC2
- Kathryn Bailey, PEO C3T Public Affairs (17 October 2018) New players bring novel approaches to the Army's network modernization goals
- Nancy Jones-Bonbrest, Army Rapid Capabilities Office (8 November 2018) Cutting through the noise: Army, industry work together to speed up signal detection
- SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. (19 November 2018) Can Army Afford The Electronic Warfare Force It Wants?
- Ellen Summey, PEO EIS (1 July 2019) Army Leader Dashboard, creating insight-driven decisions
- Lizette Chapman (13 December 2019) Palantir Wins New Pentagon Deal With $111 Million From the Army HR, supply chain, et. al.
- Billy Mitchell (DEC 26, 2019) Inside Palantir’s support of the Army’s massive data problem
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (29 July 2020) Army Future Ops Depend On Cloud – But Not On JEDI
- Kelsey Atherton (7 August 2020) Pentagon Code Library Will Support Multiple Clouds
- U.S. Army Public Affairs (3 June 2020) Two Army Installations selected for 5G testing and experimentation
- AARON MAK (MAY 12, 2019) Report: Missile System and Surveillance Plane Funding Will Go Towards the Border Wall
- Paul McCleary (4 September 2019) Border Wall Money Taken From Alaska Missile Interceptors, Shipyards & More lists some of the affected projects
- Paul McCleary (10 September 2019) Will Trump’s Wall Mean a Delay in Defense Funding? $3.6 billion shift
- MATTHEW CHOI (09/16/2019) Pentagon puts brakes on 3 border barrier projects because of cost reverses $2.5 billion that would have been cut from missile defense allocation, Fort Knox middle school, etc.
- ELEANOR WATSON (SEPTEMBER 25, 2019) Senate votes to kill national emergency declaration along southern border
- Li Zhou (26 Sep 2019) Congress just made moves to narrowly avert another government shutdown Continuing resolution (CR) funds until mid-November
- JENNIFER SCHOLTES (10/17/2019) Senate fails to override Trump on border wall emergency
- Jason Cutshaw (SMDC/ARSTRAT) (22 March 2019) Army's senior air defender talks future of air, missile defense
- Gary Sheftick, Army News Service (13 March 2019) FY20 budget to boost air & missile defense
- Sydney J Freedberg (7 Apr 2020) COVID-19: Army Delays Missile Defense Network Test EXCLUSIVE IBCS: "The test had been scheduled to begin May 15". An ADA battalion training at WSMR has been sent home.
- Sydney J Freedberg (1 May 2019) IBCS: Northrop Delivers New Army Missile Defense Command Post 11 EOCs as well as 18 IBCS integrated fire control network (IFCN) relays by year-end 2019
- PAUL MCLEARY (23 September 2019) NATO’s Not Ready For Saudi-Style Drone Attacks; 'It’s A Serious Problem' 10 command posts for the IBCS system by year end 2019
- U.S. Army (12 December 2019) Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense System successfully intercepts test targets
- USAASC (2020) Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD)
- Jen Judson (8 Oct 2018) What’s the rush? US Army races to get missile defense radar early LTAMDS
- Gary Sheftick, Army News Service (19 June 2019) Army tests prototypes, explores technologies for air, missile defense Tests of 3 LTAMDS prototypes at WSMR
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (17 October 2019) LTAMDS: Raytheon To Build Linchpin Of Army Air & Missile Defense
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (19 March 2020) Raytheon: Robotized Factory Speeds Up Army LTAMDS Radar Avoids DoD5000 by using "Other Transaction Authority (OTA) and Section 804 Mid-Tier Acquisition processes"
- Jen Judson (27 March 2019) Army debuts missile defense framework in move to counter drones, hypersonic threats
- Jen Judson (11 Oct 2018) Army nearing strategy on way ahead for Indirect Fire Protection Capability
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (5 March 2020) Iron Dome Doesn’t Work For Army: Gen. Murray: Interoperability with IBCS is critical
- Anna Ahronheim (9 MARCH 2020) US Army: Iron Dome cannot be integrated into our air defense systems: Iron Dome offers 12 launchers, two sensors, two battle management centers and 240 interceptors, but US Army's IAMD needs access to Iron Dome Source Code for interoperability w/ IFPC, IBCS
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (9 March 2020) New Missiles Must Work With IBCS Network: Bruce Jette (Exclusive) Each shooter must accept targeting data and firing commands from IBCS, at brassboard level at least
- [492][483][493][494][495]
- Army rebuilding short-range air defense Gary Sheftick, Army News Service (2 July 2019) Army rebuilding short-range air defense Manpad training for 19K MOS using synthetic training environment (STE)
- Claire Heininger, U.S. Army (1 August 2019) Army awards laser weapon system contract RCCTO has awarded Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract 26 July 2019 for $203 million to two subcontractors, for prototype high energy lasers (HELs) for MSHORAD
- Joe Lacdan (22 October 2018) Army to fuse laser technology onto air defense system
- Sydney J Freedberg (17 Sep 2020) Lockheed Aims For Laser On Fighter By 2025
- Jen Judson (6 August 2019) F-35 talks to US Army’s missile command system, says Lockheed
- Paul McCleary (30 August 2019) Army Tests Dispersed THAAD; Beginning Of Modular Missile Defense? A step toward IBCS
- MDA NEWS Release (30 August 2019) THAAD System Successfully Intercepts Target in Missile Defense Flight Test Flight Test THAAD (FTT)-23 image: https://www.mda.mil/global/images/system/thaad/FTT-23_THAAD_01.jpg at Kwajalein
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (6 July 2020) IBCS: Army Launches Massive Army Missile Defense Test LUT is prerequisite for a Milestone C decision in the acquisition process.
- Sydney J Freedberg (13 August 2020) IBCS: Army Missile Defense Passes Most Complex Test Yet
- Matthew Cox (20 August 2020) Army Destroys Cruise and Ballistic Missile Targets in 2nd Test of New Defense System
- Jason Cutshaw USASMDC (27 August 2020) SMDC target team supports Army IBCS tests Zombie launched to test IBCS
- Lt. Col. David P. McCoy, Test Division Chief, Air and Missile Defense Test Directorate, U.S. Army Operational Test Command (11 September 2020) Ft. Bliss Air Defense Soldiers provide data testing new Integrated Air and Missile Defense system
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (21 August 2020) IBCS Defeats 2 Missiles in Flight – But 100s In Simulation
- Defense Brief Editorial (20 August 2020) US Army IBCS intercepts ballistic, cruise missile targets in second LUT test "IBCS integrated the data to form a single uninterrupted composite track of each threat, impossible with any single sensor, which then informed engagement solutions with the best interceptors to engage both incoming threats"
- Sydney J Freedberg (3 August 2020) Live-Fire Tests In August For Army Air & Missile Defense
- Paul McCleary (21 August 2019) Pentagon Cancels Multi-Billion $ Boeing Missile Defense Program
- Theresa Hitchens (17 December 2019) Lawmakers Question R&E Oversight; Pump MDA Funding RKV cancellation is prompting an NDAA mandate for a federally funded R&D center (FFRDC) study, whether to move the oversight of MDA
- Theresa Hitchens (17 December 2019) Hill To Griffin: No Moving The SCO; Shifts It to DepSecDef Norquist Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO)
- Paul McCleary (6 September 2019) Pentagon Issues Classified RFP For New Missile Interceptor No Refund of Monies expected. Rework is To Be Determined
- AUSA (12 Mar 2020) Army SMD Hot Topic 2020 - VADM Jon Hill - Dir, Missile Defense Agency
- Jason Cutshaw U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (7.24.2019) SMDC colonel accepts TCM SMD Assumption of Charter from AMD to SMD
- Jen Judson (15 May 2019) Dynetics-Lockheed team beats out Raytheon to build 100-kilowatt laser weapon
- Sydney J Freedberg (5 August 2019) New Army Laser Could Kill Cruise Missiles Demonstrator lasers in test 2023, with fielding in 2024
- Daniel Wasserbly (14 October 2019) AUSA 2019: Lockheed Martin weighs options for achieving a 250-300 kW air-defence laser Addresses IFPC requirements
- [517][493][494][495]
- AFC (21 Nov 2019) Soldier feedback driving Army modernization used 10 soldier touchpoints
- Argie Sarantinos-Perrin, CCDC Public Affairs (29 March 2019) CCDC technology to increase Soldier readiness in multi-domain operations: capabilities by 2023
- [16][456][15][521][522] [295]
- David Vergun (8 October 2018) Next-generation squad weapon to be very capable, lethal, says Army chief of staff
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (17 June 2019) Army Buys 9,000 Mini-Drones, Rethinks Ground Robots
- Joe Lacdan, Army News Service (4 April 2019) Army to field new night vision goggles
- Robert Purtiman (21 September 2018) Lethality Cross-Functional Team bringing next generation technologies to Soldiers ENVG-B, Next Generation Squad Weapons, and the Adaptive Soldier Architecture
- Joe Lacdan (3 June 2019) Army testing synthetic training environment platforms Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainer-Air (RVCT-A), -Ground (RVCT-G), and 3-D terrain database (One World)
- Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (22 March 2018) Synthetic training environment to enhance Soldier lethality
- Joe Lacdan (16 July 2019) One World Terrain (OWT) to allow Soldiers to train anywhere
- The Army Strategy 2018
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (15 May 2019) Let The (War) Games Begin: Army Buying High-Tech Training Sims
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (13 October 2019) Special Ops Using Army’s Prototype 3D Maps On Missions: Gervais
- Yasmin Tadjdeh (1 Dec 2020) I/ITSEC NEWS: Army Accelerates Synthetic Training Environment Development
- Jennifer McArdle & Caitlin Dohrman (3 Dec 2020) THE NEXT SIMNET? UNLOCKING THE FUTURE OF MILITARY READINESS THROUGH SYNTHETIC ENVIRONMENTS Applying STE capability "requires organizational change and vision".
- Paul McCleary (16 April 2019) Esper: Chinook & JLTV ‘Designed For a Different Conflict’
- Joe Lacdan (25 September 2019) More joint efforts likely as the Army prepares for multi-domain operations A speedup in tempo, as driven by the CFTs is needed, according to Lt. Gen. Wesley
- "Clearly define roles, responsibilities and processes in order to identify the right efforts and get ahead of need." —William B King (AMC) (18 February 2020) Conference focuses on Army modernization, equipping Soldiers Equipping Enterprise (AMC) + Modernization Enterprise (AFC)
- Phil Fountain, U.S. Army Futures Command (7 August 2019) Army Futures Command charts a campaign plan No uniforms
- Gen. David Goldfein and Gen. Jay Raymond (28 Feb 2020) America’s future battle network is key to multidomain defense JADC2: " We cannot yet share data in a seamless and simultaneous way between the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps or the Space Force"
- Freedberg (14 Oct 2020) Army Seeks Open Architecture For All Air & Ground Systems: Jette In the spirit of MOSA, JADC2, & Project convergence:
- Army Common Operating Environment (COE)
- C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS)
- Future Air-Borne Capability Environment (FACE)
- Integrated Sensor Architecture (ISA)
- Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA)
- Vehicle Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability (VICTORY)
- Freedberg (13 Nov 2020) QinetiQ Delivers Armed Scout Robot To Army: RCV-L uses UGV Interoperability Profile
- Futurology (22 May 2020) The World in 2050 CCDC is actually working on realizing some of these possibilities. See below
- AUSA, ILW selected papers, David Perkins, moderator (24 October 2018) ILW Launches Landpower Education Forum 4 views
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (8 October 2018) Army Moves $25B To Big Six, From New Tanks To 6.8mm Rifle
- A series on: Army Strategic Fires
- Sydney J. Freeberg, Jr. (28 May 2019) Beyond INF: An Affordable Arsenal Of Long-Range Missiles? INF Treaty likely to expire in August 2019
- Matthew Cox (14 September 2018) The Army is developing a new strategic cannon to devastate targets over 1,000 miles away
- Sean Gallagher (10/15/2019) Bringing in the big gun: Army paves way for "strategic cannon"
- Defense Updates (4 Feb 2019) U.S ARMY'S SUPER GUN - STRATEGIC LONG RANGE CANNON (SLRC) Smaller GPS-enabled shells.
- Eric Kowal (August 27, 2020) By Improving Artillery Shells, Picatinny Engineers Seek to Greatly Extend Range of Cannon Artillery
- Richard P. Hansen, Scranton Army Ammunition Plant (August 19, 2020) Scranton Army Ammunition Plant Manufactures and Ships Large-Caliber Ammunition Metal Parts
- Monica K. Guthrie, LRPF communications director (9 October 2019) Army Futures Command gains new general
- Daniel Cebul (8 Oct 2018) Army looks to a future of integrated fire
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (24 October 2019) TITAN system being developed to tie 'deep sensing' to long-range fires For use in I2CEWS battalion of a Multi-domain task force
- Mark Gardiner The New York Times (Friday 21 Sep 2018) p.B4
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (4 June 2020) Small robotic mule, other unmanned ground systems on the horizon
- Sean Kimmons, Army News Service (11 July 2019) Soldiers to operate armed robotic vehicles from upgraded Bradleys (Mission Enabler Technologies-Demonstrators, or MET-Ds)
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (14 October 2019) Army Robots Go Rolling Along – Ahead Of Schedule Robotic combat vehicles in "Four Years, Three Phases, Three Weight Classes"
- Mandy Mayfield (2 Oct 2020) Army Puts Robotic Combat Vehicles Through Paces
- USACE (6 Oct 2020) Future Combined Arms Breaching Technology to be highlighted at AUSA 2020
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (27 July 2020) Two Men & A Bot: Can AI Help Command A Tank? 2-man crews in MET-Ds have proved they can maneuver without a commander.
- David Craig (26 Oct 2020) The Time Is Now to Transform America’s Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (18 Dec 2020) OMFV: Army Wants Your Weird Ideas For Bradley Replacement Multiple forms of the OMFV are a possibility. Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) is a requirement so that systems can be upgraded in a modular fashion.
- Daniel Lafontaine, CCDC (21 May 2019) Army Futures leveraging mission command for effective Soldier, robot teams
- Devon L. Suits (26 July 2018) CERDEC unveils more than a dozen new technologies for mission command CPCE COE MCE
- Maj. Rich Marsh, Joint Modernization Command (14 February 2019) JMC sets the stage for largest annual modernization exercise
- Jen Judson (9 October 2018) The Army’s future tank may not be a tank Buy back size, weight, and power
- Economist.com (12 Sep 2020) Tanks have rarely been more vulnerable Taiwan would have an advantage defending.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (11 September 2019) Titan Robot Test-Fires Javelin Anti-Tank Missile Remote-controlled test-fires of FGM-148 Javelin antitank missiles from unmanned ground vehicle
- David Miller (20 August 2020) The Future of Unmanned Ground Systems in the Operational Environment names 7 countries using UGSs
- NANCY JONES-BONBREST (16 July 2020) ARMY AWARDS CONTRACT FOR HYBRID ELECTRIC PROTOTYPE
- Major Matthew Wood (Nov 2019) The Future of Hybrid and Electric Technology for Army Australian Defense Force
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (8 April 2020) New TRISO Nuclear Mini-Reactors Will Be Safe: Program Manager DoD project: 3 competing designs (1-year contracts, with a possible 1 year follow-on) for 1 prototype of an inherently safe reactor (no meltdowns). Fuel rods are composed of spheres: 3 layers of uranium, carbon, silicon carbide —TRISO has been tested to be safe at 3200°F, hotter than the melting point of steel. A molten salt reactor is a possibility.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (7 August 2020) Robots & Puddles: Surprises From Army RCV Test
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (6 Nov 2020) Army Wants Smaller Brigades, Stronger Divisions & Lots O’ Robots First contact with the enemy to be unmanned. Lists a portfolio of Common robotic systems (CRSs)
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (26 Mar 2020) FVL Q&A: 7 Leaders On The Future Of Army Aviation Nicknamed "6-pack+1";
- Commander, Aviation Center of Excellence (CoE)
- Commander, Aviation Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC)
- Director, Aviation directorate, Deputy Chief of Staff G3/5/7
- Commander, Aviation Special Operations Command (USASOAC)
- Deputy PEO, Aviation
- SES, Aviation and Missile Command
- Director, FVL CFT
- Gary Sheftick, Army News Service (9 September 2019) Smart sensor network helps redirect missile The GBU-69 was redirected; FARA is slated to replace AH-64 in subsequent A3I experiments
- Dan Gouré (29 Feb 2020) Finally, There Is a Solution to the Problem of Flying in Degraded Visual Environments: Terrain awareness and warning systems (TAWS)
- David Craig (6 April 2020) Future Vertical Lift Conducts a Demonstration of the Spike NLOS Missile System
- Kerensa Crum, CCDC Aviation & Missile Center Public Affairs (30 March 2020) CCDC Aviation, Missile Center highlights forward-launched UAS technology
- Anthony Small, U.S. Army Futures Command (13 March 2019) Futures Command highlights changes, new structure at SXSW
- "Finding and engaging high-value relocatable ground systems within rapid timelines" is the Air Force's operational objective in this JADC2 exercise —Eliahu Norwood, Greg Grant, and Tyler Lewis (December 2019) A new battle command architecture for multi-domain operations: countering peer adversary power projection Tie-in to MDC2, MDO
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (11 March 2020) Army Won’t Build Recon Satellites: Lt. Gen. Berrier
- MDO-driven modernization priorities for ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance)
- Terrestrial Layer System (TLS)
- Aerial ISR
- Gray, Blue, and Red (targeted) force tracking
- TITAN-level communications
- MDO-driven modernization priorities for ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance)
- NPR on the GAO report: GAO-19-128 Bill Chappell NPR (9 October 2018) Cyber Tests Showed 'Nearly All' New Pentagon Weapons Vulnerable To Attack, GAO Says
- GAO-19-128 (October 2018) report on weapon system vulnerabilities
- David Vergun (24 September 2018) Cybersecurity: 'Remain vigilant, be accountable, stand ready' Army major general says
- ARL Public Affairs (6 September 2018) Army research takes proactive approach to defending computer systems Moving target defense (MTD)
- Shane Harris (27 March 2019) Palantir Wins Competition to Build Army Intelligence System
- Joe Lacdan (05.24.2018) Warfare in megacities: a new frontier in military operations "No amount of planning, study or preparation can prepare a military unit for the unique rhythm of a major city or what Townsend labeled the 'flow'."
- Timothy L. Rider (22 November 2019) Multinational partners find New York ideal to test urban warfare technologies Fort Hamilton hosted Contested Urban Environment Strategic Challenge 2019 (CUE 19) on 24 July 2019
- John Spencer (14 November 2016) The Most Effective Weapon on the Modern Battlefield is Concrete
- David Vergun, Army News Service (10 September 2018) Multi-domain operations to exploit enemy vulnerabilities, say Army leaders
- Dan Lafontaine, CCDC C5ISR Center Public Affairs (4 September 2019) Army looks to enhance mission command with robotic swarms
- Carol Scheina, CCDC C5ISR Center Public Affairs (September 8, 2020) Abrams demonstration proves concept for enterprise-level system health monitoring
- [591][118][413][592][221][593][95]
- ARL Public Affairs (16 October 2018) Researchers develop technique to locate robots, Soldiers in GPS-challenged environments
- Joe Lacdan, Army News Service (10 June 2019) Army leaders: Space tech crucial to future combat
- Mark Schauer (ATEC) (12 February 2019) Unmanned aircraft stays aloft for nearly 26 days above U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground
- Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing Cross Functional Team Assessment Exercise 1-16 Aug 2019, WSMR
- Jonathan Koester, Joint Modernization Command Public Affairs (4 September 2019) Army, JMC assess new navigation, positioning systems Wearable A-PNT
- Mark Pomerleau (28 March 2019) If GPS goes out, the Army now has a requirement for that
- Thomas Brading, Army News Service (7 October 2019) Army fields anti-jam GPS, plans for thousands more by 2028
- Dan Lafontaine, CCDC C5ISR Center Public Affairs (17 June 2019) Futures Command looks to enable plug-and-play PNT across Army platforms
- Gary Sheftick, Army News Service (10 March 2020) Army looks to leverage 'low Earth orbit' satellites: LEO satellites orbit 100-1200 miles above Earth
- CCDC Army Research Laboratory (29 August 2019) Army scientists discover a new way for robots to exchange directed messages
- Kim, M., Pallecchi, E., Ge, R. et al. (2020) Analogue switches made from boron nitride monolayers for application in 5G and terahertz communication systems. Nature Electron https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-0416-x
- Todd South (20 Nov 2020) New Army research breakthrough could lead to more powerful lasers David J. Pine is investigator for ARO, using colloids of microscopic spheres which can assemble bottom-up into promising structures.
- Paul McLeary (17 January 2019) Missile Defense Review a Multi-Billion IOU to White House
- Miles Brown (5 July 2019) Aviation, missile commander addresses workforce CG Todd Royar's statement of his expectations
- Lisa Simanuci, Aviation and Missile Command Public Affairs (27 Nov 2019) Field grade officers hear general’s perspective —Maj. Gen. Todd Royar's talk at the Command and General Staff School
- [546][103][493][491][607][608]
- PROGRAM EXECUTIVE OFFICE MISSILES AND SPACE (2018) Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Program Overview
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (1 October 2018) Army Awards Northrop $289M For IBCS Missile Defense Network
- Dan Gouré (20 Mar 2020) SOCOM Has Solved the Military’s 'Tower of Babel' Problem
- ARL (24 September 2018) New Army technology guides Soldiers in complete darkness
- Joe Lacdan (13 May 2019) Augmented reality training on the horizon to give Soldiers edge in combat allows repetition, for training
- Tom McKay (6 April 2019) The Army Just Gave a Press Demo of Microsoft's HoloLens 2 Military Prototype
- Bridgett Siter (19 November 2019) Soldiers test new IVAS technology, capabilities with hand-on exercises IVAS: 1 Soldier Touchpoint (STP) STP is becoming rapid acquisitions methodology for AFC
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (13 December 2019) Soldiers, Coders Surprise Army Brass By Changing IVAS Goggles FOV is turning out to be more important to the infantrymen than the range of the goggles
- Devon L. Suits, Army News Service (9 December 2019) Third IVAS evaluation slated for July Soldier Touchpoint successfully increased IVAS FOV to 80 degrees while range of the goggles was still at 900 meters, from thermal nightsight capability
- Thomas Brading, Army News Service (10 February 2020) New technology recognizes faces in the dark, far away Combines night vision with facial recognition
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (5 October 2020) From ‘Frankengoggle’ To Battle-Ready: Army IVAS waterproof IVAS
- [614][615][616][456][617][618][619][620]
- Thomas Brading, Army News Service (6 February 2020) Army scientists on verge of nearly unbreakable battery First announced in 2015
- U.S. Army CCDC Research Laboratory Public Affairs (5 February 2020) Army scientists look inside batteries with a molecular eye CCDC ARL "teamed with researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory" (PNNL)
- CCDC Army Research Laboratory (3 March 2020) Researchers imagine devices without cords or batteries Molybdenum disulphide
- Dan Lafontaine, C5ISR Center Public Affairs (4 May 2020) In modernization push, Army researches integrated power cables for Soldiers uses technology from Foreign Comparative Testing program (FCT)
- Dan Lafontaine, C5ISR Center Public Affairs (17 Jan 2020) Army boosts Soldier battery power for greater lethality, mobility by using silicon-based anodes
- U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs (25 February 2020) Additive manufacturing to provide Soldiers with cutting-edge munitions They "printed the world's first 3-D hybrid microcontroller circuit on a hemisphere that survived high G environments".
- NSRDEC Public Affairs (15 October 2018) Natick's exoskeleton work is a powerful step toward the future of Soldier lethality
- RDECOM Soldier Center, Public Affairs Office (23 January 2019) Soldier Center partners with industry experts to advance exoskeleton technologies
- Harvard (17 Sep 2018) Multi-joint Personalized Exosuit Breaks New Ground video clip
- Thomas Brading, Army News Service (29 August 2019) Army closer to delivering new infantry squad vehicle (ISV)
- 9 Soldiers of an infantry squad will maneuver in an ISV
- Plans to purchase 649 prototypes were approved in February 2019
- 3 industry leaders have been named (23 Aug. 2019), to deliver ISV prototypes
- Oshkosh Defense/Flyer,
- GM Defense, and
- SAIC/Polaris
- Prototypes are due for initial assessment at Aberdeen Test Center 13 November 2019 through December 2019
- At Fort Bragg a second round of operational testing by Soldiers will be performed on the candidate ISV prototypes
- Downselect to one vendor is expected 2nd Quarter of FY2020
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (8 October 2019) Who Will Build 651 Parachuting Trucks For The Army? 2 air-drop-able prototypes from each vendor due 13 November 2019,
- Kyle Mizokami (13 Oct 2019) Meet the Army's New Airborne Trucks
- GM Defense LLC (8 Aug 2020) US Army Selects GM Design for Infantry Squad Vehicle
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (27 October 2020) GM Defense Delivers 1st Air-Droppable Trucks Cybersecurity is part of ISV electronics
- Kyle Mizokami (29 Oct 2020) Here It Is: the Army's New Infantry Squad Vehicle
- Janes (21 Oct 2019) AUSA 2019: GM Defense's Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) for U.S. Army Youtube clip, 9:27. No armor, has Roll bars.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (19 December 2019) AI & Robots Crush Foes In Army Wargame
- MIT Technology Review (13 November 2018) The British Army is carrying out a massive test of military robots and drones
- DEFENDER-EUROPE 20 videos, images and stories
- Lt. Col. Travis Dettmer (9 February 2020) U.S. Army Futures and Concepts Center teaches Multi-Domain Operations to NATO Allied Land Command
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (January 13, 2020) Infinite Games & War By Other Means: Ryan McCarthy: "We must be engaged in constant competition, versus an episodic engagement strategy" —Secretary Ryan McCarthy
- Greg Norman (22 Feb 2020) The 5 most powerful armies in the world
- The Hon. David Norquist, Deputy Secretary of Defense, DoD (10 Sep 2020) Closing Keynote: Day 2 Defense News Conference 2020 : Sept 9 - 10 22:00 minutes
- (4 November 2018) Russia Jammed GPS During Major NATO Military Exercise With US Troops
- Russia has figured out how to jam U.S. drones in Syria, officials say
- Sydney Freedberg, Jr. (3 September 2014) US Has Lost ‘Dominance In Electromagnetic Spectrum’: Shaffer
- Stephen Clark (25 November 2019) Russia launches space surveillance satellite Kosmos 2542, in a polar orbit —"[To] monitor the condition of other Russian satellites in orbit."
- Joseph Trevithick (30 JANUARY 2020) A Russian "Inspector" Spacecraft Now Appears To Be Shadowing An American Spy Satellite USA 245 is a KH-11 series satellite; Cosmos 2542 is now tailing the USA 245's movements with a precision of 150 to 300 kilometers. See Hall thruster
- Andrew E. Kramer (2 March 2019) Russian General Pitches ‘Information’ Operations as a Form of War
- Paul McCleary (30 May 2019) Dunford: Leaders Mull First NATO Strategy In Decades
- Neil Hauer (26 February 2020) Russia may have met its match in Libya Is unable to tip the balance, as it has in Syria. So Russia is escalating its involvement.
- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (21 April 2020) COVID-19: Army Futures Command Takes Wargames Online
- Aaron Bateman (22 May 2020) As Russia stalks US satellites, a space arms race may be heating up
- Vladimir Isachenkov, The Associated Press (9 Aug 2020) Russia warns it will see any incoming missile as nuclear
- Mark B. Schneider (19 Sep 2020) Will Russia Further Lower Its Nuclear Weapons Use Threshold?
- Eric Geller (14 Dec 2020) 'Massively disruptive' cyber crisis engulfs multiple agencies
- Ellen Nakashima & Craig Timberg (14 Dec 2020) Russian government hackers are behind a broad espionage campaign that has compromised U.S. agencies, including Treasury and Commerce Identified as SVR /APT29 /Cozy Bear, according to FireEye. Breached using the update server of SolarWinds, its Orion Platform, versions released in Mar & Jun 2020.
- Defense News (July 2019) Top 100 for 2019
- Theresa Hitchens (31 July 2019) Competition (With China) IS The New Deterrence, US Military Leaders Say Vice Adm. David Kriete of US Strategic Command
- aj.com (1 Oct 2019) China Confirms New Hypersonic Nuclear Missile On 70th Anniversary DF-17
- Kristin Huang (23 Aug 2019) China’s hypersonic DF-17 missile threatens regional stability, analyst warns
- (1 Oct 2019) China unveils Dongfeng-17 conventional missiles in military parade See minute 0:05 to 0:49 for 16 Hypersonic Glide Vehicles (white-tipped contrast atop their DF-17 fuselages mounted on booster rockets)
- Kathrin Hille in Taipei and Qianer Liu in Beijing (1 Oct 2019) China displays military advances in show of strength to rivals Lists missile armaments. FT video FT estimates 1/3rd of China's missile arsenal is on display in 1 Oct parade
- BILL POWELL (10/3/19) CHINA'S HYPERSONIC MISSILES, AKA 'CARRIER KILLERS,' ARE A 'HOLY S**T MOMENT' FOR US MILITARY
- Bill Gertz (24 December 2019) China's test of sub-launched missile a threat to peace, retired captain warns JL-3 is an SLBM
- Reuters World News (27 June 2017) China passes tough new intelligence law National Intelligence Law
- P.W. Singer and Taylor A. Lee (31 March 2020) China’s version of GPS is almost complete. Here’s what that means.
- Elizabeth Howell (16 June 2020) China postpones launch of Beidou global navigation satellite
- James Anderson (31 July 2020) China's troubling nuclear buildup The New York Times Op-Ed p.A25. —James Anderson is Acting undersecretary of defense for policy
- Robert Burns (27 Aug 2020) Esper visit to tiny Palau highlights US-China competition
- Dean Cheng (23 Nov 2020) Chinese Party Sets Bold Military Goal: ‘Mechanized & Informationized’ By 2027
- The Print Team (14 Nov 2020) How drones helped Azerbaijan defeat Armenia, and the implications for future modern warfare
- "Army Futures Command: U.S. Army Secretary Mark Esper announces that Austin has been chosen as the location for the new Army Futures Command". C-SPAN. 13 July 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- (13 July 2018) University of Texas System to serve as home base for U.S. Army Futures Command
- Stripes.com: Army’s new Futures Command to set up headquarters at University of Texas
- Ralph K.M. Haurwitz - American-Statesman Staff (10 August 2018) UT regents give Army’s Futures Command free use of space temporarily
- "Army announces Austin as the home of new Army Futures Command". C-SPAN. 13 July 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
- "PN2622 — Lt. Gen. John M. Murray — Army". U.S. Congress. 16 July 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
- McBride, Courtney (24 May 2018). "General selected to lead Army Futures Command". Inside Defense. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
- Austin gets its general; Army Futures Command leader confirmed
- FCC Leadership (20 February 2020). "Futures and Concepts Center". Futures and Concepts Center. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
- As an example, any number of effects can be weaponized (see p.1 The New York Times 2 September 2018 "Invisible strikes may be cause of envoy's ills", describing the Microwave auditory effect), or else countered. Hypersonic vehicles are a countermeasure to ballistic missiles.
- Sydney Freedberg (10 Dec 2018) US Army’s Brain Transplant: Futurists Move To Futures Command
- AFC:"Who we are":"Meet our leadership":Lt. Gen. James M. Richardson :wiki: James M. Richardson (general)
- CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs (29 April 2019) Army selects senior research scientist for terminal ballistics Fewer than 50 STs across the Army: An ST is a general-0fficer equivalent
- U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory (18 September 2019) Army research uncovers law-like progression of weapons technologies--from a crossbowman to a tank
- Jerome Aliotta (TARDEC) (6 September 2019) Army demos prototype manned fighting vehicle teamed with robotic combat vehicle platoon
- Argie R. Sarantinos Perrin, CCDC (30 September 2019) Army reform drives innovation at CCDC
- Jen Judson (6 September 2018) Military deputy to US Army acquisition now has two bosses
- Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski Bio
- ASA(ALT) (20 September 2019) Army Acquisition Reform
- Stand to: Army Acquisition Reform, a summary
- Arpi Dilanian and Matthew Howard (18 July 2019) The Cheese Has Moved: An Interview With Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski
- Ft Meade Soundoff! (19 July 2018) New site for Army Futures Command
- Arpi Dilanian and Matthew Howard (1 October 2019) Bridging the gap to Army 2028: An interview with Gen. John "Mike" Murray