Army Futures Command Must Perform Miracles (From RealClearDefense)

In recent public statements, General John Murray, the newly-confirmed commander of the Army’s fledgling Futures Command, has been downplaying expectations for his new organization. He cautioned listeners not to expect miracles from the new organization. The trouble with this perspective is that the current state of the Army requires some miracles. Virtually the entire array of Army ground and aerial platforms are in serious, in some cases desperate, need of modernization. In addition, at the end of the Cold War, the Army essentially abandoned a number of capability areas, most notably tactical air defense, electronic warfare and chemical-biological defense, which it now is scrambling to resurrect. It is unclear how Futures Command is going to infuse the rest of the Army’s acquisition system with the spirit of innovation and the drive of entrepreneurship. I have written more on this topic for RealClearDefense here.