Army Futures Command integrates on a daily basis with entrepreneurs, scientists and businesses to employ an entrepreneurial spirit of accepting the risk of failure early and cheaply in order to create the best solution for our Soldiers. Much of this work is accomplished through four subordinate, supporting commands, which operate through collaborative partnerships with industry and academia to help keep Soldiers safe, America strong, and to win on any future battlefield.

Combat Capabilities Development Command headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., ensures the dominance of Army capabilities by creating, integrating and delivering technology-enabled solutions to our Soldiers. DEVCOM is the Army’s organic research and development capability.

Futures and Concepts Center assesses threats and future operational environment, develops concepts, requirements and an integrated modernization path to increase lethality and over-match to enable Soldiers and units to win on future battlefields.

Medical Research and Development Command headquartered at Fort Detrick, Md., manages and executes research in five basic areas: military infectious diseases, combat casualty care, military operational medicine, chemical biological defense, and clinical and rehabilitative medicine.

The Army Software Factory is an integrated software development initiative to teach, develop, and employ self-sustaining talent from all ranks within the military and civilian workforce. Located in Austin, Texas, on the Austin Community College Rio Grande Campus, the factory’s mission is to build digital proficiency across the Army that enables Soldiers and civilians to develop cutting-edge applications for current and future systems. The software factory training pipeline harnesses cloud technology and modern software to solve Army problems and better prepare for disconnected warfare in 2028 and beyond.

CFT: Cross-Functional Teams

The Cross Functional Teams (CFTs) were established to narrow existing capability gaps by developing capability documents, informed by experimentation and technical demonstrations to rapidly requirements to the Army Acquisition System. The Army’s modernization priorities, which are necessary for future readiness and multi-domain operations, are the focus of the CFTs activity: (1) Long-Range Precision Fires (2) Next-Generation Combat Vehicles (3) Future Vertical Lift (4) Army Network (5) Air and Missile Defense and (6) Soldier Lethality.

IST: Integration & Sync Teams

Army Futures Command is home to several teams:

Army Applications Lab based in Austin, Texas, aligns innovative solutions and technologies with Army problems, resources, and programs to rapidly discover, validate, and transition technology applications in support of Army modernization.

Army Artificial Intelligence Integration Center located at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, leads and integrates the Army artificial intelligence strategy and implementation plan, synchronizes key development efforts, and sets the foundations for operationalizing Artificial intelligence within the Army Modernization Enterprise.

Combat Systems Directorate facilitates the Army modernization enterprise’s efforts to refine, engineer, integrate and produce developed solutions to meet identified requirements. The directorate maintains oversight of the cost, schedule, integration, and technical performance of all programs aligned within and between the Army’s cross-functional team efforts.

Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team was established at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 2018, for the purpose of pursuing the combat capabilities necessary to achieve and sustain over-match against enemy forces anywhere, at any time. The concept of enhancing Soldier lethality necessitates a strategic focus on the needs and fundamental functions of the 21st Century Soldier in respect to shooting, movement and mobility, communications and protection.