United States Army Futures Command

Army Futures Command was established to improve Army acquisition by creating better requirements and reducing the time to develop a system to meet them. Between 1995 and 2009, the Army spent $32 billion on programs such as the Future Combat System[16] that were later cancelled with no harvestable content.[17] As of 2021, the Army had not fielded a new combat system in decades.[18][19][20][21][22][23]

General Mark Milley, then Army Chief of Staff, helped establish the Army Futures Command.[24] Its first commander was by General John Murray,[25] formerly the Army's G-8.[lower-alpha 1]

Over his four-year term as the Army's chief of staff, Milley, working with top service officials, shifted billions of dollars into modernization programs and based the new command in Austin, Texas, an area known for its innovative, technology-focused workforce.[26] The Army gave the command's chief and the leaders of new groups, dubbed "§ cross-functional teams", the authority to manage requirements and the leeway to direct dollars.

At its founding, Futures Command was focused on six priorities:[Note 2] Long-range precision fires, Next Generation Combat Vehicle, Future Vertical Lift platforms, a mobile & expeditionary Army network, air and missile defense capabilities,[27] and soldier lethality.

Murray announced plans to stand up an Army Applications Lab[Note 1] to accelerate acquisition and deployment of materiel to the soldiers, including by using artificial intelligence (AI). [28][29]

Murray also said he would hire a chief technology officer for AFC.[12][30]

A fundamental strategy was formulated, involving simultaneous integrated operations across domains.[31][32] This strategy involves pushing adversaries to standoff,[lower-alpha 2] [35][34] by presenting them with multiple simultaneous dilemmas.[36][37][lower-alpha 3] A goal is that by 2028, the ability to project rapid, responsive power across domains will have become apparent to potential adversaries.[38][39][lower-alpha 4]

In 2018, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said Futures Command would have three areas of focus:[40]

1. Futures and Concepts: assess gaps (needs versus opportunities,[14] given a threat).[40] Concepts for realizable future systems (with readily harvestable content)[41][42]^{: for definitions of terms, such as '6.3'} will flow into TRADOC doctrine, manuals, and training programs.[lower-alpha 1]
2. Combat Development: stabilized concepts.[41][42] 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.[43][lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 6] (See Value stream)
3. Combat Systems: experiments, demonstrations, and prototypes.[44] Transition to the acquisition, production, and sustainment programs of AMC.[45][lower-alpha 7][lower-alpha 8]

Army Secretary Mark Esper said that the 2018 administrative infrastructure for the Futures and Concepts Center (formerly ARCIC) and United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC, now called DEVCOM, (formerly RDECOM)) remains in place at their existing locations.[49] What has changed or will change is the layers of command (operational control, or OPCON)[50] needed to make a decision.[49]

AFC declared its full operational capability in July 2019,[51][52] after an initial one-year period.[53] The FY2020 military budget allocated $30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over next five years.[54] The $30 billion came from $8 billion in cost avoidance and $22 billion in terminations.[54][55] More than 30 projects[56][57] were envisioned to become the materiel basis needed for overmatching any potential competitors in the 'continuum of conflict' over the next ten years[22][58] in multi-domain operations (MDO).[59]

From an initial 12 people at its headquarters in 2018, AFC grew to more than 17,000 people[60] across 25 states and 15 countries in 2019.[61] research facilities and personnel (including ARCIC and RDECOM) moved from other commands and parts of the Army such as the United States Army Research Laboratory.[62]

ASA(ALT) Bruce Jette started xTechsearch to reward private innovators.[63][lower-alpha 9] The COVID-19 pandemic led the Army to run an xTechsearch Ventilator Challenge.[65] TRX Systems won an xTechsearch award for technology that allows navigation in a GPS-denied environment.

On 13 October 2021, Army officials said most of AFC's 31 signature systems,[66] and the four rapid capability projects of the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office would be fielded by fiscal year 2023.[67][lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 6]

In 2022, Army leaders projected that 24 of the top-35 priority modernization programs would be deployed by fiscal 2023.[84]

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth announced the top six areas for the Army of 2030:[85][86]^{: minute 43:30} 1) improved intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; 2) "Coordination at greater speed";[lower-alpha 3] 3) "Win the Fires fight"; 4) concealment[87][88] via improved mobility and reduced signature; 5) "talk often and quickly";[89][lower-alpha 10] and 6) logistics.[85][90][38][39] [91][92] [93] [94]

By 2022, Futures Command was conducting the third annual iteration of Project Convergence: experiments and joint tests of 300 technologies by the Defense Department and its allies and partners.[95][96][97][98][99]

In October 2022, Wormuth assigned AFC to work on "Army of 2040" concepts.[lower-alpha 1][100][86]^{: minute 51:00}[90][101][102] Two months later, Futures Command hosted a conference with representatives from AMC, TRADOC, FORSCOM, and Headquarters Department of the Army.[103][104][105][106] AFC is leading the development of a new Army Operating Concept (v. 1.0) for the Army of 2030 to 2040.[107][108][lower-alpha 1]

When AFC was created in 2018, it was given eight cross-functional teams, or CFTs: one for each of the Army's six modernization priorities, and two others for broader capabilities. These teams are Long-Range Precision Fires, Next-Generation Combat Vehicles, Future Vertical Lift, the Network to include Precision Navigation and Timing, Air-and-Missile Defense, Soldier Lethality and Synthetic Training Environment.

In 2023, the Army announced that it would create a ninth team, for Contested Logistics.[138][93][139] The 2023 exercises for IndoPacom will test its prepositioned stocks.[140] The CG of Army Materiel Command is taking the lead for contested logistics.[141]

In 2018, McCarthy characterized a CFT as a team of teams, led by a requirements leader, program manager, sustainer and tester.[142] Some CFTs also have representatives of U.S. allies.[143][52] Each CFT lead is mentored by a 4-star general.[144] Each CFT can have a Capability Development Integration Directorate.[Note 2] For example, the Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, in coordination with the Aviation Program Executive Officer (PEO), contains the Vertical Lift CFT and the Aviation CDID. "We were never above probably a total of eight people", the Aviation CFT's Brigadier General Wally Rugen said in 2018.[144] Four of the eight CFT leads have now shifted from dual-hat jobs to full-time status.

Each CFT must strike a balance amid constraints—the realms of requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment—to produce a realizable concept before a competitor achieves it.[145]

The Army Requirements Oversight Council (AROC) itself serves as a kind of CFT,[lower-alpha 1] operating at a higher level[146][147][129][148][149][150] as response to Congressional oversight, budgeting, funding, policy, and authorization for action.[41][42][151][130][152][153][154]

AFC and the CFTs are expected to unify control of the Army' s $30 billion modernization budget.[155][52]

Multi-domain operations (MDO)[lower-alpha 8] span multiple domains: cislunar space, land, air, maritime, cyber, and populations.[156]^{: minute 17:45}[157][158][159] Echelons above brigade (division, corps, and theater army) engage in a continuum of conflict. —This illustration is from The MDO Concept, TRADOC pamphlet 525-3-1.[lower-alpha 12]

AFC has given research funding to more than 300 colleges and universities[52] with one-year program cycles.[162] "We will come to you. You don't have to come to us," Murray said on 24 August 2018"[53]^{: minute 6:07},[163]

Multiple incubator tech hubs are available in Austin,[164] especially Capital Factory, with offices of Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and AFWERX (USAF tech hub).[120]

AFC will work with other organizations such as Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) as needed.[111][165]

In 2018, the Army secretary ordered AFC to draft an execution order to create an Army AI Task Force (A-AI TF) to support the DoD Joint AI center.[218][219][28][220] The Army AI task force establish scalable machine learning projects at Carnegie Mellon University.[221][222]

That same year, the Army Applications Laboratory was established along with AFC to help connect Army-future efforts and commercial products and ideas.[Note 1]

In 2019, the Army CIO/G-6 was ordered to create an Identity, Credential, and Access Management system to efficiently issue and verify credentials to non-person entities (AI agents and machines)[223] As well, 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.[224][225][226][227]

In 2022, DEVCOM Analysis Center (DAC) signed a cooperative agreement with Northeastern University's Kostas Research Institute (KRI) to build on KRI's analytic framework, with six other universities on artificial intelligence and assistive automation (AI/AA), to further Army sub-goals ("mission effectiveness analysis, ontology for decision making, automatic target recognition, human systems integration, cyber resilience/electronic warfare threat defense, and assessing autonomous maneuver/mobility").[228]

Futures Command was to stand up Army Software Factory in August 2021, to immerse soldiers and Army civilians of all ranks in modern software development, in Austin.[229][230][231][232][233] Like 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 training program lasts three years, and will produce skill sets for trainees as product managers, user experience and user interface designers, software engineers, or platform engineers.[229] The Al Work Force Development program and this Software Factory will complement the Artificial Intelligence Task Force.[230][234] The Army has identified soldiers who can already code at Ph.D.-level, but who are in unexpected MOSs.[235] In March 2023 the Marine Corps moved its software factory to the Army's software factory in Austin, Texas.[236]

Data

The Army looks for ideas from defense contractors In 2018, for example, the Network CFT and the Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications—Tactical (PEO C3T) hosted a forum so vendors could learn what products might soon work as testable or deployable systems.[187][237][238][239] Vendors submitted hundreds of white papers; ones with "very mature ideas" were passed to the Army's acquisition community and to the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).[240]

The Army is interested in ways to accelerate acquisition programs. For example, this was an explicit request in the 2019 solicitation for requests for information about Future Vertical Lift.[81] In January 2020, the optionally manned fighting vehicle solicitation was cancelled when its requirements added up to an unobtainable project;[241]

Robotic combat vehicles

Robotic combat vehicle (RCV)

Project Origin unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), at Joint Multinational Readiness Center, Hohenfels, Germany[242][243][244]

By October 2021, experiments with a company-sized tele-operated / unmanned formation were underway at Camp Grayling, Michigan.[245][244][246][247] The 18 light and medium robotic combat vehicles, in concert with surrogate heavy RCVs (modified M-113s), proxy manned control vehicles (MET-Ds), and drones for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), were to complete ATEC (Army Test and Evaluation Command) safety testing in May 2022[247] and live-fire drills in August 2022.[247][248]

By June 2022, Army RCVs had demonstrated some disruptive capabilities,[242] in preparation for Project Convergence 2022. At PC22, resupply by unmanned helicopters and other autonomous capabilities were demonstrated by systems from the US, Australia, and UK.[249]^{: min 25:30}[250][251][252]

In May 2023, Army Futures Command disclosed concepts for robotic combat platoons,[253] akin to the Collaborative combat aircraft of the Air Force.[254]

Futures Command works with the ASA(ALT),[255][256] who as Army Acquisition Executive (AAE),[13] has milestone decision authority (MDA)[44][23] at multiple points in a materiel development decision (MDD).[257] AFC consolidates expertise into the relevant CFT, which balances the constraints needed to realize a prototype, beginning with requirements, science and technology, test, etc., then enters the acquisition process (typically the Army prototypes on its own and, as of 2019, 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).[258] 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.[258] 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:[13][257][41] over 1,200 programs/projects were reviewed;[259] by October 2019, over 600 programs of record had been moved from the acquisition phase to the sustainment phase.[259] An additional life cycle management action is underway, to re-examine which of these projects or programs should be cancelled.[259]

Futures Command picks which programs to develop.[259][260][261][14] Each CFT works with the Army Acquisition Corps,[262][263][264][265][266][267] U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC), and Army Contracting Command.[257] The Principal Military Deputy to the ASA(ALT) is also deputy commanding general for Combat Systems, Army Futures Command,[13] and leads the Program Executive Officers (PEO); he has directed each PEO who does not have a CFT to coordinate with, to immediately form one, at least informally.[127]

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.[40]

— Defense Secretary Mark Esper

The PEOs work closely with their respective CFTs.[262] Operationally, the CFTs reduce degrees of separation between Army echelons,[144] and provide a point of contact for Army reformers.[14][144]

The development process will consist of one or more cycles (prototype, demonstration/testing, and evaluation,[46][268]) meant to find and discard unrealistic requirements before a project becomes a program.[52][23] "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," Esper said in 2019.[269][lower-alpha 6]

AFC activities include at least one cross-functional team, its capability development integration directorate (CDID),[270]^{: Para. 2b} and the associated Battle Lab,[270]^{: Para. 2b} for each Army Center of Excellence. Each CDID and associated Battle Lab work with their CFT to develop operational experiments and prototypes to test.[122]

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 to develop experimental prototype "units of action" for rapid fielding. In June 2019, the prototypes were for long-range hypersonic weapons, high-energy laser defense, and space,[271][272][273] The Army tripled its spending on speed and range capabilities from 2017 to 2019.[274][199][275][276][277]

CFTs and PEOs order up tests run by JMC and White Sands Missile Range, which hosts United States Army Test and Evaluation Command.[172][8][278][122][279] Test results are analyzed by the Research and Analysis Center at Fort Leavenworth.[122]

CCDC, now called DEVCOM (formerly RDECOM, at APG) includes the several Army research laboratory locations,[280] as well as research, development and engineering centers listed:[270][122][281]

CCDC is focusing on long-range precision fires the six RDECs and the Army Research Laboratory. As of September 2018, RDECOM's "concept of operation" is first to support the LRPF CFT,[211] 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 that save on size and weight.[211] Two dedicated RDECOM people support the LRPF CFT, with reachback support from two dozen more at RDECOM.[282] In January 2019, RDECOM was renamed CCDC; General 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.[123][281]

Acquisition specialists are being encouraged to accept lateral transfers to RDECs where their skills are needed: Ground Vehicle Systems Center (formerly TARDEC, at Detroit Arsenal. Michigan), Aviation and Missile Center (formerly AMRDEC, at Redstone Arsenal), C5ISR Center (formerly CERDEC, at Aberdeen Proving Ground), Soldier Center (formerly NSRDEC, Natick, Massachusetts), and Armaments Center (formerly ARDEC, at Picatinny Arsenal) listed below.[283]

Esper said AFC will reduce the time needed to define requirements for a new program from 60 to 12 months.[284][9][50] Requirements may be reduced to "a simple statement of a problem."[285]^{: minute 41:50}[286][53]^{: minute 11:00}[112][287][281][41] The development process will consist of repeated prototyping, demonstration/testing, and evaluation, designed to find and eliminated unrealistic requirements. ASA(ALT) Bruce Jette says the acquisition community should seek to fail and find a new solution rather than commit a program to a drawn-out failure.[288][289][262]

Esper scrubbed through 800[290] modernization programs to reprioritize funding[291] for the top six modernization priorities,[155] which will consume 80% of the modernization funding,[292] of 18 systems.[292] His "night court" budget review process shifted $2.4 billion for modernization from programs that were not tied to modernization or to the 2018 National Defense Strategy.[293]

Budgets will likely restrict the fielding of new materiel to one Armor BCT per year;[294] at that rate, updates would take decades.[294][295]

In 2019, the CIO/G6 piloted "enterprise IT-as-a-service"-style service contracts at AFC. In July 2019, such a contract set up a sensitive compartmented information facility at AFC headquarters.[51]

In February 2020, the Army vice chief of staff said Army modernization was perceptibly speeding up.[296]

This Life Cycle Management (formulated in 2004)[297][298] was intended to exert the kind of operational control (OPCON)[50] needed just for the sustainment function (AMC's need for Readiness today),[288] rather than for its relevance to modernization for the future. AFC now serves as the deciding authority when moving a project in its Life Cycle, out of the Acquisition phase and into the Sustainment phase.[259][23][lower-alpha 1]

During to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Acquisition Executive and the AFC commander created a COVID-19 task force to try to project supplier problems 30, 60, and 90 days out. In 2020, they tracked 800 programs and 35 priorities.[299]

The CFTs must balance requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment.[145][142][Note 2]

Some modernization work will be done via the Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and education, Personnel and Facilities (DOTMLPF) framework.[9][300]

The plan is to have an MDO-capable Army by 2028[lower-alpha 4] and an MDO-ready Army by 2035.[300][301]

In 2018, McConville said TRADOC, ASA (ALT), and AFC are tied together.[302] The ASA(ALT) will coordinate the acquisition reform with AFC.[270]^{: Para. 1c}[256][23] He also said AFC will have to be "a little bit disruptive" to institute reforms within budget in a timely way.[303]

Congress has given the Army Other Transaction Authority (OTA),[304][Note 1] which allows the PEOs to enter into Full Rate Production quicker by permitting the services to control their own programs of record, rather than DoD.[127] This strips out one layer of bureaucracy.[127][305][306] Middle tier acquisition authority is another tool.[307][308]

There is now a PEO for Rapid Capabilities (RCO) with two program managers, one for rapid prototyping, and one for rapid acquisition, of a capability.[309] Requirements are developed by the Cross-functional team (CFT).[310] In 2019 RCO became the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO).[311]

In 2019, Futures Command was formulating multiyear enterprise campaign plans.[312][175] The planning process includes Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs), Futures and Concepts (FCC), Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), and Army Reserve's Houston-based 75th Innovation Command. Pne goal is to formulate the plans in simple, coherent language which nests within the national security strategic documents.[312][89][313][252][314][315] By October 2022 Field Manual 3-0 said "Multi-domain Operations are at the root of all Army operations".[316]^{: § 1-11, p.1-3}[317]^{: minute 28:09 to 36:00}

A goal of AFC is overmatch of the capability of a competitor or adversary, particularly the imposition of multiple simultaneous dilemmas upon a competitor or adversary.[10] By 2021, Army leaders recognized that the multi-domain operations task force[318] could do so.[319]^{: min 30:45}[lower-alpha 3]

Planning for the Army of 2040 is underway.[107][lower-alpha 1][320]

XM1113 extended range artillery round, shown here at a range demonstration, uses a rocket-assist motor

• Long-range precision fires developments include[lower-alpha 13]:[323][324]
  • Hypersonic materiel development:[274] the Strategic long range cannon (SLRC), for a hypersonic projectile,[325][326] is meant to have a range up to 1,000 nautical miles.[327] An early ballistic test took place at Naval Support Facility Dahlgren, as announced at AUSA in October 2019.[327][328]
  • ERCA development at Picatinny Arsenal: evaluate several manufacturing technologies, tied to the XM1113 munition.[329][330]
  • Targeting with thousand-mile missiles,[276][199][196][331][332] "streamlining the sensor-shooter link at every echelon"—BG[333] John Rafferty,[199] in Integrated fire.[334][335][336]
• Mobile & Expeditionary Network[113] / MDO Multi-domain operations[31][294]
  • Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT)[157][337][338]
    • An A-PNT event was scheduled at WSMR for August 2019
      • [45]^: pp220-3[lower-alpha 7][339][340][341][45]^: pp220-1[lower-alpha 7][342][343]
    • Prototype jam-resistant GPS kits are being fielded to 2nd Cavalry Regiment in US European Command (EUCOM) before year-end 2019.[268] More than 300 Strykers of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment are being fitted with the Mounted Assured Precision Navigation & Timing System (MAPS), with thousands more planned for EUCOM.[344]
    • A Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) is under development.[345][346][239]
      • Low Earth orbit satellites for Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing—"When you look at the sheer number of satellites that go up and the reduced cost to do it, it gives us an array of opportunities on how to solve the problems" in A-PNT[347]
    • ARL researchers have proposed and demonstrated a way for small ground-based robots with mounted antennas to configure phased arrays, a technique which usually takes a static laboratory to develop. Instead the researchers used robots to covertly create and focus a highly directional parasitic array (see Yagi antenna).[348]
    • ARL's Army Research Office is funding researchers at University of Texas at Austin, and University of Lille who have built a new 5G component using hexagonal boron nitride which can switch at performant speeds, while remaining 50 times more energy-efficient than current materials—the "thinnest known insulator with a thickness of 0.33 nanometers".[349]
    • ARL's Army Research Office is seeking diamond colloids, microscopic spheres which can assemble bottom-up into promising structures for laser action.[350]
    • A demonstration of proof of concept allows soldiers to communicate their position using a wearable tracking unit. The technology allows soldiers (or robots) to prosecute a fight even indoors or underground, even if GPS were lost.[351]
• Air, Missile Defense:[324][331][332][352][353][354][355] An Integrated Air and Missile Battle Command System (IBCS)[356] award, including next software build.[357][331][332] of $238 million also funds initial prototypes of the command and control system for fielding in fiscal 2022.[358]
  • • Hypersonic glide vehicle launch preparations,[306] beginning in 2020, and continuing with launches every six months.[359]
    • At Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, an FVL CFT-sponsored demonstration of interconnected sensors handed off control of a glide munition which had been launched from a Grey Eagle drone. When another group of sensors picked up a higher-priority target, another operator at the Tactical Operations Center redirected the glide munition to the higher-priority targe.[360][361][362]
• Soldier lethality
  • Network CFT sponsors sensor-to-shooter prototype for multi-domain battle, 2019 operational assessment. [363][364][365]
  • Night vision goggles thermal polarimetric camera.[366] Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS)[367][368][369][370][371][372][373][374][375] The Synthetic Training Environment (STE) is available to some of the troops outfitted with IVAS.[376] Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said Army work on a common operating picture will be a foundation for joint operations.[377][378][379]
  • CCDC ARL researchers are developing a flexible, waterproof, lithium-ion battery of any size and shape, for soldiers to wear; the electrolyte is water itself. In 2020 the batteries were engineering prototypes; by 2021 soldiers will wear the battery for themselves for the first time.[380]
    • CCDC ARL and DoE's PNNL are examining the solid-electrolyte-interphase (SEI) as it first forms during the initial charging of a Lithium-ion battery. They have found an inner SEI (thin, dense, and inorganic—most likely lithium oxide) between the copper electrode, and an outer SEI which is organic and permeable—a finding which will be useful when building future batteries.[381]
  • CCDC ARL and MIT researchers are formulating atomically thin materials to be layered upon soldiers' equipment and clothing for MDO information display and processing.[382]
  • Integrated, wearable cabling for capabilities such as IVAS, NGSW, or Nett Warrior are under development;[383] the potential exists to reduce 20 pounds of batteries to half that weight.[384]
  • CCDC ARL is studying additive manufacturing (3D printing) for munitions.[385]
  • Natick Soldier RDEC has awarded an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract to prototype soldier exoskeletons which augment human leg strength under harsh conditions.[386][387][388][389]
  • DEVCOM Chem Bio Center (CBC) is developing sensors to detect contaminants.[390]
  • The Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV)[391][392] is meant to be airdropped for a squad of nine paratroopers.[393] The GM design was selected; first unit is expected at 1/82nd AB division in February 2021.[394][395]
    • A-PNT devices are being miniaturized, with more redundant positioning sources.[341][45]^: pp220-3[lower-alpha 7]
    • In September 2019 in the Maneuver CoE's Battle Lab at Fort Moore, OneSAF simulations[396] of a platoon augmented by UAS drones, ground robots, and AI were able to dislodge a defending force 3 times larger, repeatedly. But by current doctrine, a near-battalion would have been required to accomplish that mission.[396]