I'm still not sure they need another command, but hqs will be in Austin.

https://www.defensenews.com/la...nd-headed-to-austin/

This is the city the Army has picked for its new Futures Command

By: Jen Judson and Leo Shane III   2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The new Army Futures Command (AFC) will be in Austin, Texas, congressional sources, who are now being notified of the choice, have confirmed.

The new four-star command was stood up in October at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington. The plan is to realign the Army’s modernization priorities under a new organization that will implement cross-functional teams that correspond with the service’s top six modernization efforts: Long-Range Precision Fires, Next-Generation Combat Vehicle, Future Vertical Lift, the network, air-and-missile defense and soldier lethality.

The service plans to make an official announcement on the location of the command July 13 at the Pentagon.

The Army has wanted the new command’s headquarters in a city or urban hub close to industry and academia and not on a base or military installation. Earlier this year it shortlisted several major cities in the U.S. as possible locations and put each through a rigorous vetting process. Congressional leaders from the locales pressed hard for a chance to host the new command.

The creation of the AFC has also meant taking some elements from some of the major commands and moving them over to the new organization, Army Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy told Defense News in an exclusive interview just ahead of the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium in March. But he said many of those elements won’t have to move to the command’s new location.

The AFC’s first commander has been reported to be Lt. Gen. John Murray, the current Army G−8,but the Army has not officially confirmed that selection.

Gotta keep the Generals in command to command and the Staff officers staffs to staff.

And shit, you can't have the General in El Paso / Ft Bliss or one of the other beautiful Army bases, he's gotta go to Austin...

LMFAO, it's almost criminal.

This will cause the libs around here to go crazy.

Austin....really?!?!

maybe it makes sense.....you need the geeky weird kids, they can create a modern press gang at the various Austin "fests"

Look a level 20 Elvin female mage....whaaaap!

"found a new recruit"

Another layer of bureaucracy within the military based in a liberal area. I foresee how this is going to come out.

Nah, the government would never waste money or time.

With a serious question: do generals call generals with more stars by sir? I know it's technically a higher rank but a 2LT isn't going to call a 1LT sir.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
Nah, the government would never waste money or time.

With a serious question: do generals call generals with more stars by sir? I know it's technically a higher rank but a 2LT isn't going to call a 1LT sir.

IIRC stars are a bit different than bars. But at that level they all know each other and sponsor each other.

In public it's sir. In private, a guy you've served with for thirty years probably won't hang you if a "Really, Jack?" slips out once in a while.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

With a serious question: do generals call generals with more stars by sir? I know it's technically a higher rank but a 2LT isn't going to call a 1LT sir.

It really depends on the personality.

A friend of mine was a loop and his 1-star went to see the 3-star.

He said is was like an O-6 talking to an O-1 (which surprised me quite a bit, but 3-star was known to be a tool).

Where are they going to park?

I don't care about Austin but I'd like to put in for this assignment after CGSOC. I think it will be awesome to have a hand in future capabilities.

Futures command? You mean like wheat, pork bellies, and frozen orange juice concentrate?

quote:

Originally posted by SgtGold:
Futures command? You mean like wheat, pork bellies, and frozen orange juice concentrate?

Well, "An army marches on its stomach"

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Where are they going to park?

That's a problem for their drivers to figure out.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Where are they going to park?

That's a problem for their drivers to figure out.

They will be parked on the interstate like everyone else in Austin.

Here's more to answer the "Why Austin?" question. I would also ask, "Why do we need a Futures Command?" but what do I know...

Wait. Maybe they'll study caseless ammo for, oh...five years and then conclude it's not practical.

https://www.defensenews.com/la...for-futures-command/

Why the Army picked Austin for Futures Command

By: Jen Judson   2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — After whittling down a list of more than 150 cities to five, the U.S. Army has decided on Austin, Texas, for its new four-star command designed to tackle modernization priorities that will help it fight the next wars.

Questions on the distance from the Pentagon and other major four-star commands have cropped up overnight as well as whether or not the Army will struggle to fit in and be accepted by hip, anti-establishment entrepreneurs with whom it hopes to collaborate to gain a vast technological edge against peer adversaries.

The Army Futures Command was stood up in October at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington. The plan is to realign the Army’s modernization priorities under a new organization that will implement cross-functional teams that correspond with the service’s top six modernization efforts: Long-Range Precision Fires, Next-Generation Combat Vehicle, Future Vertical Lift, the network, air and missile defense, and soldier lethality.

These priorities address gaps the Army found — as it looked toward fighting complex, hybrid wars against near-peer adversaries — as the result of a focus on asymmetric warfare and counterinsurgency operations over the past 15 years.

“We are in the midst of a change in the very character of war,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said at a July 13 Pentagon press briefing. “And we don’t, and didn’t, have the organization solely dedicated to that.”

While other commands had modernization efforts built in, “it was spread out all over the place and no one was solely dedicated to looking into the deep future and determining the implications to the U.S. Army,” he said. “We needed to dedicate a single organization to that and thereby streamline and consolidate and bring unity of command and purpose to the Army for the development of our future capabilities. That is why. That is the reason.”

The Army believes Austin will provide the new command with the tools to be disruptive, innovative and break the entire service out of the archaic industrial age, allowing it to effectively focus on modernizing and preparing for future, more complex operations.

Austin beat out a short list of Boston, Massachusetts; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “The choice was very difficult, but we ultimately had to make a choice that was best for the U.S. Army,” Army Under Secretary Ryan McCarthy told reporters during the briefing.

The service developed a model and criteria to assess cities using an outside firm and then validated the findings through its own internal studies and analysis as well as through a federally funded research and development center to narrow the search.

The Army focused on six major criteria to choose Austin: proximity to science, technology, engineering and mathematics workers and industries; proximity to private sector innovation; academic STEM and research and development investment; quality of life; cost; and civic support.

“I laid out the six variables. Austin scored the highest,” McCarthy said.

Additionally, the Army looked beyond those metrics and envisioned “how each city ecosystem would support our modernization efforts and priorities vertically from concept to capability to solution,” McCarthy said. “We do not have time to build this ecosystem; it needs to be ready immediately.”

The Army found Austin had access to academia, industry and mature entrepreneurial incubator hubs “to give our leaders placement and access to talent, ideas, collaboration and willingness to help us build the culture we need,” McCarthy said.

While the service will have a headquarters established in an office building in downtown Austin for leadership, it will also embed personnel within incubator hubs already well established in the city, places where entrepreneurs sit in a “sea of laptops” collaborating on big problems and ideas, McCarthy described.

The Army has acknowledged the strength of entrepreneurialism, and “these incubator hubs are really challenging these big corporations,” McCarthy added. This is why, for example, there is a growth of venture capital arms within major defense firms, he explained.

“This is where collaboration, networking and innovation is happening daily at rates that cannot be duplicated on an Army post or industrial park,” he said.

When asked how the Army can be confident it would be accepted by entities like academia and entrepreneurial hubs that are inherently culturally different from the military, McCarthy said there has been an “overwhelming level of support” and a desire for the Army to be there from each city that made it to the top-five list. “I can’t emphasize that enough,” he said.

McCarthy said there is already an advance team heading to Austin that will be there to initially stand up the command. He also said an incentives package has been offered by the state of Texas.

The Army is working through the details of the incentives package and has not yet inked a deal, “but we have the offer on the table,” he said.

Milley noted that the establishment of Army Futures Command in Austin is only beginning — its initial operational capaiblity — but it will reach a full operational capability in one year from now.

“It will take one year,” he said, “to stand this command up, have all of its processes fleshed out, have all of the people assigned and to start seeing some initial results.”

Army Secretary Mark Esper added that much is likely to change over time. “We have to be comfortable operating in the gray over time. There may be things that we pull into the organization and move them back out as we evolve and learn. … That is part of the culture that we are trying to build, is flexibility to adapt your organization, your processes to the needs of the time.”

well given that its Austin I wonder which flag it is they're going to hoist

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Where are they going to park?

This is what I thought. Unless they all already live here, this will be just more people moving to Austin adding to traffic. I live in Pflugerville and they keep building neighborhoods and apartment complexes like crazy. We still only have two grocery stores and a small Aldi’s. The grocery store I go to has become insanely packed regardless of when I go.

Seriously

My daughter goes to UT Austin (Hook 'em Horns!!) and every visit is a new lesson in frustration and patience.

Instead of "Keep Austin Weird" the city motto should be "Right Lane Closed Ahead"

That being said, welcome to Texas AFC! I wonder where it will be...likely in the Round Rock / Georgetown area where there might actually be some space to build.

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Where are they going to park?

This is what I thought. Unless they all already live here, this will be just more people moving to Austin adding to traffic. I live in Pflugerville and they keep building neighborhoods and apartment complexes like crazy. We still only have two grocery stores and a small Aldi’s. The grocery store I go to has become insanely packed regardless of when I go.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo Jones:


That being said, welcome to Texas AFC! I wonder where it will be...likely in the Round Rock / Georgetown area where there might actually be some space to build.

If they don't need a vast campus and want to stay in Austin proper, Camp Mabry or the ARNG has a facility on the back of ABIA. Maybe the old Mueller Airport.

Camp Swift isn't unreasonably far. Room for testing stuff and privacy, more affordable housing, and easy helicopter range to Ft. Hood/Ft. Sam. The government already owns land there, at the prison near Camp Swift. And then there's the science park for UT/M.D. Anderson.

Whatever, wherever-I hope it doesn't turn out like the stillborn Ingleside Homeport.

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Where are they going to park?

This is what I thought. Unless they all already live here, this will be just more people moving to Austin adding to traffic. I live in Pflugerville and they keep building neighborhoods and apartment complexes like crazy. We still only have two grocery stores and a small Aldi’s. The grocery store I go to has become insanely packed regardless of when I go.

My bet is that they will locate close to P'ville's Executive Airport. The airport is scheduled to get its own tower by next year, there is plenty of open space available to build a new large military facility, and they are close to I35 and 130. Using 130 it's a straight shot to Fort Hood and Fort Sam Houston. The Army can expand the runways at the airport to handle whatever they need without impacting the commercial flights at Bergstrom.