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D R A F T part B Infrastructure of Futures command

United States Army Futures Command (AFC) is a United States Army command aimed at modernizing the Army. It currently focuses on six priorities: 1— long-range precision fires, 2— next-generation combat vehicle, 3— future vertical lift platforms, 4— a mobile & expeditionary Army network, 5— air & missile defense capabilities,  and 6— soldier lethality. AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs) are Futures Command's vehicle for sustainable reform of the acquisition process for the future.

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). 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 for competition with near-peers, who have updated their capabilities.

AFC declared its Full Operational Capability (FOC) in July 2019, after an initial one-year period. The FY2020 budget allocated $30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over the next five years. The $30 billion came from $8 billion in cost avoidance and $22 billion in terminations. Over 30 projects are envisioned to become the materiel basis needed for overmatching any potential competitors in the continuum of conflict over the next ten years, in  Multi-domain operations (MDO).

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."

- Then-Under Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy

According to Secretary McCarthy, there will be three elements in Futures Command:
 * 1) Futures and Concepts: assess gaps (needs versus opportunities, given a threat). Concepts for realizable future systems (with readily harvestable content)   will flow into TRADOC doctrine, manuals, and training programs.
 * 2) Combat Development: stabilized concepts.  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. (See )
 * 3) Combat Systems: experiments, demonstrations, and prototypes. Transition to the acquisition, production, and sustainment programs of AMC.

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. What has changed or will change is the layers of command (operational control, or OPCON) needed to make a decision.

"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."

- Secretary Esper

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. 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.

CFTs 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. 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: Modernization reform is the priority for AFC, in order to achieve readiness for the future.
 * 1) Improved long-range precision fires (artillery):—(Fort Sill, Oklahoma) Lead: BG John Rafferty  ... PEO Ammunition (AMMO)
 * 2) Next-generation combat vehicle—(Detroit Arsenal, Warren, Michigan) Lead:  BG Ross Coffman ... PEO Ground Combat Systems (GCS)
 * 3) Vertical lift platforms—(Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama) Lead: BG Wally Rugen ... PEO Aviation (AVN)
 * 4) Mobile and expeditionary (usable in ground combat) communications network (Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland)
 * 5) Network Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence— Lead: MG Pete Gallagher ... PEO Command Control Communications Tactical (C3T)
 * 6) Assured Position Navigation and Timing— (Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama) Lead: William B. Nelson, SES
 * 7) Air and missile defense—(Fort Sill, Oklahoma) Lead: BG Brian Gibson, ... PEO Missiles and Space (M&S)
 * 8) Soldier lethality
 * 9) Soldier Lethality—(Fort Benning, Georgia) Lead: BG David M. Hodne ... PEO Soldier
 * 10) 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 ' ... ' 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.

The CFTs will be involved in all three of AFC's elements: Futures and concepts, Combat development, and Combat systems. "We were never above probably a total of eight people" — BG Wally Rugen, Aviation CFT. 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.

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, "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: Holland notes that prototyping applies to the conceptual realm ('harvestable content') as much as prototyping applies to the hardware realm.

A 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report cautions that lessons learned from the CFT pilot 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").

Partners
AFC is actively seeking partners outside the gates of a military reservation, including research funding to over 300 colleges and universities. "We will come to you. You don't have to come to us. — General Mike Murray, 24 August 2018" Multiple incubator tech hubs are available in Austin, especially Capital Factory, with offices of Defense Innovation Unit (DIUx) and AFWERX (USAF tech hub). Gen. Murray will stand up an Army Applications Lab there to accelerate acquisition and deployment of materiel to the Soldiers, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as one acceleration technique; Murray will hire a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for AFC. Gen. Murray, in seeking to globalize AFC, has embedded U.S. military allies into some of the CFTs.
 * Artificial Intelligence (AI) Modernization — 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:
 * Army AI task force (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)
 * 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. Funding will be assured for the Fiscal Year 2019.
 * 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.
 * 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. On 20 August 2020, the champion AI agent consistently defeated a human F-16 pilot in a series of dogfights.
 * 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. JAIC is seeking to curate the flood of data at DoD to allow systematic, reliable datasets which are usable for machine learning.
 * Adaptive Distributed Allocation of Probabilistic Tasks (ADAPT) is a DARPA model for testing AI-to-human communication in a toy environment.

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. 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.

AFC is seeking to design signature systems in a relevant time frame according to priorities of the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA). AFC will partner with other organizations such as Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) as needed. 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. The Secretary of the Army has approved an Intellectual Property Management Policy, to protect both the Army and the entrepreneur or innovator.

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 in the near future. 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. Although some test requirements were inappropriately applied, the Command post computing environment (CPCE) has passed a hurdle.

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". In January 2020 the current Optionally manned fighting vehicle (OMFV) solicitation was cancelled when the OMFV's requirements added up to an unobtainable project; In February 2020 Futures command was now soliciting the industry for do-able ideas for an OMFV.

The 2020 xTechSearch top 10 semifinalists (who will each receive $120,000) are:
 * 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. 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). 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.

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.

AFC events

 * See the AFC events below

Acquisition
Futures Command partners with the ASA(ALT), who, in the role of the Army Acquisition Executive (AAE), has milestone decision authority (MDA) at multiple points in a Materiel development decision (MDD). (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).    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. 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: over 1200 programs/projects were reviewed; 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). An additional life cycle management action is underway, to re-examine which of these projects/programs should be divested. (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. In order to achieve its mission of achieving overmatch, each Futures Command CFT partners with the acquisition community. This community (the Army acquisition workforce (AAW)) includes an entire Army branch (the Acquisition Corps),   U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC), Army Contracting Command, (.. This list is incomplete). The Principal Military Deputy to the ASA(ALT) is also deputy commanding general for Combat Systems, Army Futures Command, 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. "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."

The PEOs work closely with their respective CFTs. The list of CFTs and PEOs below is incomplete. Operationally, the CFTs offer "de-layering" (fewer degrees of separation between the echelons of the Army — Rugen estimates two degrees of separation), and provide a point of contact (POC) for Army reformers interested in adding value in the midst of constraints to be balanced while modernizing. "... and if we're really good, we'll continue to adapt. Year over year over year." —Secretary Esper (See .)

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. 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.

AFC activities include at least one Cross-functional team, its Capability development integration directorate (CDID), and the associated Battle Lab,   for each  Center of Excellence (CoE) respectively. Each CDID and associated Battle Lab work with their CFT 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,   tripling between 2017 and 2019.

Tests are run by JMC and WSMR, which hosts ATEC. As ATEC reports directly to the Army Chief of Staff, the test support level from ATEC is to be specified by the CFT, or PEO. Fort Bliss and WSMR together cover 3.06 million acres, large enough to test every non-nuclear weapon system in the Army inventory. 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, or AMSAA, denoted the Data Analysis Center at APG. CCDC (formerly RDECOM, at APG) includes the several Army research laboratory locations (ARLs), as well as research, development and engineering centers (RDECs) listed:

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, 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. Two dedicated RDECOM people support the LRPF CFT, with reachback support from two dozen more at RDECOM. 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.

Although the Army Research Laboratory has not changed its name, Secretary Esper notes that the CCDC objectives supersede the activities of the Laboratory;  the Laboratory remains in its support role for the top-six priorities for modernizing combat capabilities.

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.

AFC branch locations
The following activities for Futures Command are at 23 locations. (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)
 * 1) AFC HQ, Austin TX
 * 2) AFSG Army Future Studies Group,  2530 Crystal Dr, Arlington, VA 22202
 * 3)  Futures and Concepts Center of AFC, formerly  ARCIC  Fort Eustis VA
 * 4) JMC Joint Modernization Command, Fort Bliss, which is contiguous to WSMR
 * 5) WSMR White Sands Missile Range NM, also houses ARL, TRAC, and ATEC.
 * 6) FT LVN Operations research: Mission Command Battle Lab,     Capability development integration directorate (CDID), The Research Analysis Center (TRAC), formerly TRADOC Analysis Center,  Fort Leavenworth KS SHARPtestingAvatar.jpg 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  These simulations are created at Army Research Laboratory (ARL) West, and ICT, Playa Vista, CA ]]
 * 7) * CFT: Synthetic Training Environment (STE): The HQ for STE has opened in Orlando (28 January 2019).
 * 8) CCOE Cyber CoE - (its CDID and Battle Lab), Fort Gordon GA
 * 9) * CFT: Mobile and Expeditionary Network
 * 10) MCOE Maneuver CoE  - (its CDID  and Battle Lab), Fort Benning GA
 * 11) * CFT: Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV)
 * 12) * CFT: Soldier Lethality
 * 13) AVNCOE Aviation CoE  - (its CDID), at Fort Rucker
 * 14) * CFT: Future Vertical Lift (FVL)
 * 15) FCOE Fires CoE  - (its CDID  and Battle Lab),    Fort Sill OK
 * 16) * CFT: Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF)
 * 17) * CFT: Air and Missile Defense
 * 18) ICOE Intelligence CoE  - (its CDID), Fort Huachuca AZ
 * 19) MSCOE Maneuver Support CoE  - (its CDID and Battle Lab), Fort Leonard Wood MO
 * 20) SCOE Sustainment CoE  - (its CDID), Fort Lee VA
 * 21) APG  Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen MD, also houses Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), formerly RDECOM, Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA), and C5ISR center   (the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center was formerly CERDEC)
 * 22) * CFT: Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT)
 * 23) * CFT: Network CFT (N-CFT)
 * 24) * CFT: Long Range Precision Fires,
 * 25) Armaments center (formerly    Armament research, development and engineering center —ARDEC), Picatinny Arsenal, PEO AMMO, and the  Cross Functional Team for Long Range Precision Fires
 * 26) * CFT: Long Range Precision Fires
 * 27) Ground vehicle systems center (formerly  Tank Automotive  research, development and engineering center —TARDEC), Detroit Arsenal (Warren, Michigan)
 * 28) * CFT: Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV)
 * 29) Aviation and missile center (formerly  Aviation and Missile research, development and engineering center —AMRDEC), Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville AL
 * 30) * CFT: Air and Missile Defense
 * 31) Soldier center (formerly  Natick Soldier  research, development and engineering center  —NSRDEC), General Greene Ave, Natick, MA 01760
 * 32) ARL-Adelphi  Army Research Laboratory,    Adelphi MD US Army electroencephalogram.jpg 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) ]]
 * 33) ARL-Orlando Army Research Laboratory,  Orlando FL
 * 34) ARL West, Playa Vista CA
 * 35) ARL-RTP Army Research Laboratory, Raleigh-Durham NC
 * 36) AI task force at Carnegie-Mellon University

Headquarters (HQ) and commander
On 13 July 2018, U.S. Army Secretary Mark Esper said AFC's headquarters would be based in Austin, Texas. AFC spreads across three locations totalling 75,000 square feet; one of the locations in a University of Texas System building at 210 W. Seventh St. in downtown Austin, on the 15th and 19th floors. The UT Regents will not be charging rent to AFC until December 2019. The command began initial operations on 1 July 2018.

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. His appointment was confirmed 20 August 2018 and he assumed command during the official activation ceremony of AFC on 24 August 2018, in Austin, Texas.

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, from concept to Soldier. The commanding general is assisted by three deputy commanders. "... 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)."
 * the Futures and Concepts Center, led by AFC deputy commanding general Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley, who is seeking 4 value streams for reducing the time invested to define a relevant requirement:
 * 1) Science and technology (S&T: discovery / collection of ideas with usable effects)
 * 2) 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)
 * 3) Concepts development (Development of a relevant idea about that system)
 * 4) Requirements development (Development of the terms and conditions for that system)
 * Combat Development element, Army Futures Command.  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.
 * The Capability development integration directorate (CDID) of each Center of Excellence (CoE), works with its CFT 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) 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".
 * RDECOM becomes the Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), part of the Combat Development element, on 3 February 2019.
 * Combat Systems Directorate was to be led by the ASA(ALT)'s Principal Military Deputy (Principal Military Deputy (PMILDEP) to the ASA(ALT)) who will produce those developed solutions and seek feedback.
 * 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.
 * Combat Systems refines, engineers, and produces the developed solutions from Combat Development.
 * An analysis by AMSAA can then assess that concept or capability, as a promising system for a materiel development decision.

Army Chief of Staff Milley is looking for AFC to attain full operational capability (FOC) by August 2019. "I think we have been actually executing the mission for the last six to eight months if not longer. —Gen. John "Mike" Murray, 19 July 2019"

Commanding General