Army Futures Command Commemorates First Year in Austin

Photo by Beth Sullivan

On Monday, July 22, Army Futures Command commemorated its first year in Austin with a public celebration at the Long Center for Performing Arts, replete with a drill team performance and a demonstration from the Golden Knights parachute team. Formally activated last August, AFC is expected to reach full operational capability by the end of this month.

Deemed "the Army's largest reorganization effort in more than 40 years," Futures Command is aimed at modernizing the largest and oldest U.S. service branch. Overseen by Gen. John M. "Mike" Murray, the command targets six modernization priorities: long-range precision fires, next generation combat vehicles, future vertical lift, the Army network, air and missile defense, and soldier lethality – all of which are pursued across eight cross-functional teams, or CFTs. Kirby Thomas, an integrator on the Synthetic Training Environment CFT, shared his team's work with the public at Monday's celebration, alongside other CFT members. "The idea behind the cross-functional teams and Army Futures Command is how can I take advantage of things that are out there and prototype those to get closer to my requirements, faster than we've done typically in the Army," explained Thomas. With the STE, that means harnessing video game technologies, like augmented reality, to create a virtual training world for soldiers that more accurately reflects a real environment.

Though STE headquarters is in Orlando (in fact, all the CFT headquarters are outside of Texas), the Army has cited Austin's emerging tech talent as a deciding factor in basing the AFC HQ here. Formed under the Futures Command, the Army Applications Laboratory operates out of tech incubator Capital Factory. Described as "the Army's proponent for disruptive innovation," AAL's mission is to align "solutions and technologies with Army problems, resources and programs to rapidly discover, validate and transition technology applications in support of Army modernization." To that end, AAL has developed a concept submission process for non-Army entities to submit ideas that address the service's modernization challenges for consideration and the chance to collaborate, according to the lab's website.

"It's been a phenomenal year. We've already had some great accomplishments, and we look forward to future great accomplishments because I know they're coming," said Murray in an address to the crowd. "The only way we can do that is with your partnership, the partnership with the academia here in the city, the partnership with entrepreneurs, [and] the partnership with small businesses."