U.S. Army Searching For City To Stand Up Futures Command

Futures Command was first announced in October 2017. Officials informally referred to it as a modernization command when it was first announced.

U.S. Army leaders are looking for a city with the right mix of academics and business leaders to stand up the service’s new Futures Command.

Army leaders plan to announce details of the Futures Command, which will focus on developing new weapons and getting them “downrange” faster.

The Army had 30 potential cities in an intensive screening process and were expected to reveal details at the Association of the United States Army’s winter meeting in Huntsville, Ala., March 26-28.

Ten cities should be selected within the next two months as finalists for hosting the command. The list will then come down to four finalists.

Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville and Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy will personally visit the short-listed sites and make an ultimate decision.

The command will be tasked with bringing online new technologies such as next-generation night-vision goggles and better weapons.

Besides speeding up the lengthy procurement process, Army leaders want to eliminate the layers of bureaucracy that can hinder the military’s competitive edge, by allowing adversaries to catch up with U.S. advances while they are caught up in red tape.

The Army wants to enlist the talents of civilians and locate the Futures Command in a city instead of on a traditional military base. The city will provide access to big universities and cutting-edge technological research.

The command will lease office space and rent out two or three floors of a building for the next decade in a major city.

Austin already hosts one of the U.S. Department of Defense’s innovation hubs, and in September The University of Texas scored its largest contract ever with the U.S. Navy.

The $1.1 billion, 10-year deal is expected to yield new technologies such as advanced sonar for divers and artificial intelligence that can predict a terrorist attack.

The Army Futures Command will decide by this summer on which members of the Army’s research, acquisitions and contracting organizations will head out to the new headquarters and who will be in charge.

The doors of the command are expected to open by the end of July, and it is supposed to be fully operational a year after that.

This story originally published by Strategic Partnerships, Inc.