Three-star will head Army’s new autonomy command, which will initially focus on corps-level systems
The Army’s new autonomy command will be led by a three-star general and start building autonomous systems at the corps-level as one of its first tasks, service officials said Tuesday.
Acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle established Futures and Autonomous Systems Command (FASCOM) on Oct. 1, a new unit the service wants to build out in the wake of the Pentagon’s autonomy focused combatant command announcement late last month.
Now the Army is attempting to grow teeth for its new autonomy effort, also by designating Fort Rucker, Alabama as its “UAS Autonomy Center of Excellence,” highlighting several domains it intends to test autonomous technology, and redesignating a separate unit as FASCOM.
“This goes beyond drones,” said Acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve. “FASCOM will pioneer operational concepts that harness autonomous capabilities across all warfighting functions.”
Some of the Army’s new Robotics Technician Integrators, the first batch of which graduated earlier this month, will get sent to FASCOM-supported experimental units as a way to help proliferate autonomous systems across the force, service officials said.
While the announcement delivered during the annual AUSA conference in Washington, D.C. said a three-star will head FASCOM, the service did not disclose who that leader will be.
A service press release said that LaNeve tasked FASCOM with developing corps-level autonomous capabilities, specifically mentioning autonomous fires and watercraft units, as well as armored reconnaissance, breaching, manned-unmanned rotary aircraft and aerial surveillance formations.
The pairing of manned and unmanned rotary aircraft, which began at Rucker, according to the Army, is intended to give aviators access to UAS sensors for “over-the-horizon” targeting. Officials said that FASCOM will create “capability-based formations” focused on long-range fires, protection, tanks, logistics and obstacle breaching.
LaNeve redesignated Futures and Concepts Command (FCC) as FASCOM, which will “integrate and ultimately accelerate” the work of FCC’s subordinate commands, according to the service, including Combat Capabilities Development Command, Medical Research and Development Command and the Joint Modernization Command.
Lt. Gen. Michael McCurry is the current commander of FCC.
