AUSTIN, Texas — The Army’s new Futures Command, however it shakes out, should focus on getting technology to soldiers as quickly as it emerges, according to a senior service scientist.
What’s holding back new weapons, sensors and systems development is not technological hurdles, but the bureaucratic ones, according to Jeffrey Singleton, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology.
“The biggest problem, and this is just my opinion … is how do you go from idea to getting it into the hands of the war fighter,” he said at an NDIA conference here. “That timescale, from idea and concept to getting something to address that challenge takes too long.”
“That’s the biggest problem, I believe, Futures Command can solve,” he added. “It’s not the structure … it’s not the organization, it’s the process. How do we actually chew through that process in a much faster way to get a solution?”
The Army plans to have a leader lined up for the new command and some sort of operational capability by June or July. Lt. Gen. John Murray, who serves as the deputy Army chief of staff, G-8, testified to Congress on Feb. 7 that full operational capability will come about a year later.
Everyone from current National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster to the man currently leading the Futures Command development process Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon has been mentioned as potential leaders of the new organization.
Sources have told Defense Daily it will not be Cardon or McMaster. The official announcement of details of Futures Command’s location and leadership were expected at next week’s annual Association of the U.S. Army spring confab in Huntsville., Ala. It is understood from public statements by senior civilian Army officials that neither the leader or the location of Futures Command will be announced next week.