Now funded and fully operational, the Army expects some quick wins from the teams it set up to tackle its most pressing modernization priorities, though some technical nuts will be harder to crack than others, according to service officials.

Even though its new Futures Command should be up and running this summer, the Army “can’t wait for Futures Command,” Secretary Mark Esper told reporters Feb. 15 at the Pentagon.

There are a number of programs where prototyping already has opened the Army’s eyes to technological possibilities if not gear that is sufficiently superior to currently fielded equipment that it merits buying them for all or part of the force, Esper said.

Future Vertical Lift is an example where prototyping, in a relatively short period, has resulted in competitive operational designs of leap-ahead capability, he said. Two futuristic helicopter designs have been built and flown and are gearing up for a technology demonstration to inform the Army in its decision to replace its rotorcraft fleet with next-generation aircraft.

A light armored vehicle prototype fires an integrated 30mm cannon during a live fire demonstration July 15 at Fort Benning, Ga. Photo: Army.
A light armored vehicle prototype fires an integrated 30mm cannon during a live fire demonstration July 15 at Fort Benning, Ga. Photo: Army.

“We want to pull a lot of things forward, like Next Generation Combat Vehicle,” Esper said. “We can’t wait 15 years. We’ve got to pull that forward because I’m looking at the National Defense Strategy. I’m looking at great-power competition. I’m looking at those countries and I know I have to get there sooner, in terms of this next generation of combat vehicle and Future Vertical Lift.”

“We’ll do that through a much-accelerated process that will come under Army Futures Command,” he said.

Eight cross-functional teams (CFTs) have begun the work of identifying solutions to the Army’s six modernization priorities: Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF), Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV), Future Vertical Lift (FVL), Network Command, Control Communication, and Intelligence (NC3I), Assured Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (APNT), Air and Missile Defense (AMD), Soldier Lethality, and Synthetic Training Environment (STE).

The Army is putting money against the plan with a $38 million in research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funding in its fiscal 2019 budget request for “CFT Advanced Development and Prototyping.” The service’s commitment to the effort is evident in the projected fiscal 2019 outlay of $174.7 million with a total $283.5 million budgeted through fiscal 2023, according to Army budget documents.

“Some of the CFTs are a lot more mature than others and are further along,” Army Budget Director Maj. Gen. Paul Chamberlain said during a roundtable with reporters at Pentagon on Feb. 14. “One example would be the soldier lethality and we’re moving along with enhanced night-vision goggles. So, there will be some early quick wins that we’ll see.”

The CFT effort is aimed at finding “pre-material solution analysis phase experimentation and technical demonstrations … in order to refine the development of initial capability documents in support of material development decisions” in the six modernization focal points, according to budget documents.

“Funding facilitates the experimentation and demonstration of priority technologies to ensure that planned capabilities are technologically feasible, affordable, and available to soldiers,” the documents say.

The teams should find ways of narrowing or filling prescribed capability gaps by rapidly prototyping, evaluating and then shuttling worthy technologies into the standard acquisition system.

“There are going to be some additional quick wins. I can’t say which ones are going to be first because some of them are still in development,” Chamberlain said. “A lot of the focus is on the network. There is some focus on synthetic training environment that has some possibilities.”

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville on Feb. 14 told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on readiness and management support that prototyping efforts are underway in each of the six modernization focus areas.

“We have plans to address every single one of those,” McConville said. “Within every one of those … we want to focus on three systems and then one or two systems we are going to laser focus on.”

The Army already has developed a set of dual-tube night-vision goggles through rapid prototyping and taken the design to Capitol Hill in hopes of gaining legislative backing. When such technologies are identified and approved by leadership, the Army will attempt to purchase quantities without having to slog through the federal acquisition acquisition regulations, Esper said.

 “We’re using all the authorities Congress gave us, most notably the … other transactional authorities to prototype, demonstrate and get to the field quickly,” Esper said.