Futures Center marks first anniversary
By Leah Rubalcaba
September 30, 2004
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 30, 2004) -- Nearing its one-year anniversary, the Army's Futures Center was established to provide the Army with an "institutional" lead agent for change, paving the way for more efficient and cost-effective ways of building the Army's future force.
The Futures Center at the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, Va., stood up on Oct. 1, 2003. At about the same time, the Futures Center Forward, located at Crystal City in Arlington, Va., opened its door with a staff of 15 who work as conduits between the National Capital Region agencies and the Futures Center.
"We're kind of like cavalry scouts looking to connect all the agencies," said Col. Rickey E. Smith, Futures Center Forward director. Smith explained that he and his staff stay in tune with folks in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill, at the State Department, and at the Pentagon in their mission to build the current and future force.
In the past, each individual branch like infantry, for example, would go directly to the Pentagon on a new infantry item, Smith said. "Now Fort Benning works with the Futures Center and we bring all branch and service components together for an integrated solution," he said.
Additionally, Futures Center staff members travel across the United States and DoD to conduct briefings and training sessions, enlisting the help of subject-matter experts as required.
"We try to stay in tune and make recommendations on issues - it could be about materiel development, getting money for materiel, or about a change in training," Smith said. "But we're more than materiel - we work solutions across the whole spectrum."
Soldier is the centerpiece
"Enabling Soldiers is what it's all about," Smith said. "We strive to enable Soldiers with advanced capabilities as soon as feasibly possible."
Smith explained that once a capability or product is ready, the Futures Center works to figure out the implementation and adapt the processes. "We make sure it happens," he said. "We are the catalyst, and we are limited only by resources and our own innovation."
Critical Capabilities
A major goal of the Futures Center is to assist in developing a Campaign Quality Army with Joint and Expeditionary capabilities. Smith said this Future Force reflects four critical campaign capabilities - a broad range of commander capabilities, rapid deployment, networking and self-sustainment.
"Leader development is the toughest thing we have ahead of us, because we are asking so much," Smith said. "We have lieutenants and platoon sergeants who are basically mayors of towns right now. That is already happening, so how do you train to do that?"
Smith pointed out that providing combatant commanders with full-spectrum capability is key.
Rapid deployment is critical, Smith said. "When you have tanks for the current force, you can't change the physics. A tank still weighs 70 tons and you've still got to load out," he said. "What we can do is make the packaging process more rapid and thus more deployable to reduce weeks upon weeks of getting set." Smith said his team works aggressively on streamlining these types of issues.
A joint networked force is another essential element, Smith said, linking sensors to shooters and to commanders for enhanced lethality.
"Jets, tanks and tomahawk missiles deliver lethality, but finding the right target and putting your crosshairs is the key. This brings it right back to the Soldier. There will never be a better sensor than a human." said Smith. "Networking also enables transitioning between missions and operations, because what I know, you can know and we can share - it becomes a common operating picture at all levels."
Becoming more self-sustained is the final element of the critical capabilities as Smith explained. "The more you can do forward without bringing everything with you, the better. It cuts down on the number of people we have forward as far as footprint, as far as fuel, and as far as food."
Smith added that it still is a balancing act, pointing to water generation as a prime example. "Do you want to ship bottled water everywhere, do you want to pump water, or do you want to distill water? There are usually many options to each challenge. Some things are better done forward while others are best delivered. So we pick and choose, but improving self-sustainment is key."
Current to Future
While it may be common to think of the future as the year 2015 or 2020, Smith explained that the future is literally tomorrow at the Futures Center where there is a constant overlap between current and future-force capabilities.
"There are capabilities in the current force that we want to keep in the current force. At the same time there are capabilities in the current force we want to move to the future force, and there are capabilities in the future force we want to bring back to the current force," Smith said. "This is a dynamic environment in which we balance resources and capabilities and gets us ready for the future."
When the selected units in the operating force successfully work with advances such as robots or jammers for improvised explosive devices, known as IEDs, Smith pointed out that the question then becomes how to get the items to the Army at large.
Institutional Agility
"While we are at war, combat focuses the mind," Smith said. "It's hard to be agile as an institution, but I think that's why Futures Center came to life. We're achieving institutional agility."
"We're working to help develop a Campaign Quality Army with joint expeditionary capabilities," Smith said. "Campaign Quality Army means we are going to stay around in terms of endurance and sustained land combat and operations from start to the absolute finish - until strategic objectives are achieved."
At the same time, joint and expeditionary capabilities are necessary, Smith said, since the Army never goes alone. This allows Soldiers to get there faster and transition more easily from one mission to the next.
As the Futures Center celebrates its one-year anniversary, Smith said it is well positioned to become the Army's leader in the identification, development and integration of future capabilities into today's forces.
(Editor's note: See related article "Futures Center working two initiatives for troops in Iraq."
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