Army thanks inaugural Army Futures Command leaders for exceptional service

AUSTIN, Texas – On Dec. 3, senior U.S. Army leaders, Texas government representatives, Soldiers and civilians gathered in the Austin metropolitan area to bid farewell to Army Futures Command’s retiring commanding general, Gen. John M. Murray, and outgoing command sergeant major, Command Sgt. Maj. Michael A. Crosby.

Murray and Crosby – the first commanding general and command sergeant major, respectively, to lead Army Futures Command – played instrumental roles in establishing the four-star command and growing its footprint and influence. The 2018 activation of the command, which is headquartered in Austin, represents the most significant Army reorganization since 1973.

“AFC is really at the heart of our ambitious modernization effort,” said the Honorable Christine E. Wormuth, Secretary of the Army, who was present at the ceremony.

Wormuth emphasized that “General Murray and the team here at Army Futures Command have played a critical role in mapping out how the Army must transform itself” to conquer future challenges.

Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James C. McConville, who was also present, thanked Gen. Murray and Command Sgt. Maj. Crosby for their invaluable contributions in forming the foundation of the command and ensuring its success.

“You gave birth to this command, and where it is today is just absolutely incredible,” said McConville.

Tasked with the crucial responsibility of ensuring Soldiers are as prepared as possible for the high-tech, fast-paced operational environments of the future, Murray and Crosby spent their three years at the helm of Army Futures Command working to expertly refine, sync and advance Army modernization activities.

The results to date have been promising, with the Army recently announcing that 24 of the Army’s 31+4 signature modernization efforts will be in the hands of Soldiers – either as prototypes or fully fledged systems – by Fiscal Year 2023.

One of the core initiatives of Army Futures Command, and a key factor in accelerating the development of signature modernization efforts, is Project Convergence, a campaign of learning and experimentation that has demonstrated the Army’s ability to converge multiple effects across domains and in degraded operating environments.

The project’s capstone event this year was Project Convergence 2021, a six-week experiment held at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The event field-tested new, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled vehicles and weapons systems and proved the Army’s ability to integrate effectively with Joint Force sensor-to-shooter networks, among other groundbreaking activities.

Many of the tools tested through Project Convergence experiments have been vetted by Army Futures Command’s Cross-Functional Teams, which function to further Army modernization in priority fields, such as air and missile defense and Soldier lethality.

The command has also achieved significant research accomplishments. For example, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, a subordinate command of Army Futures Command, conducted medical research that aided in the fight against COVID-19 and extended the shelf life of emergency blood supplies available to service members wounded in combat.

Successes seen across the command have been fueled by ongoing and intentional Army Future Command efforts to carve out new partnerships, or enhance existing ones, with leading universities, innovative startups and other non-traditional entities. Building these relationships has helped the Army identify and utilize new tools and approaches for solving persistent problems.

The command has also created its own hubs for solutions development with the establishment of the Army Applications Laboratory, Army Software Factory and Army Artificial Intelligence Integration Center. These one-of-a-kind incubators meld Army needs and expertise with private-sector applications and insights, propelling progress in business partnerships, Army-led software development, and AI understanding.

In addition, Army Futures Command has teamed with leading universities, including Carnegie Mellon, the University of North Carolina, the University of Texas and Texas A&M, to foster creative thinking around the Army and defense sector’s use of AI, technological research and modern engineering.

The command has also encouraged fundamental changes, such as the incorporation of Soldier touchpoints, in the ways the Army evaluates new tools to create a Soldier-centered design and development process that meets needs quickly and accurately.

With every effort, Army Futures Command has demonstrated an eagerness to experiment early and often with new equipment and systems to find, adopt and hone the best solutions for the Army.

These inaugural activities, as led by Murray and Crosby, are well-poised to further Army and Joint Force aims of achieving Multi-Domain Operations by 2035 and empowering a highly skilled Future Force that is characterized by steady overmatch in any scenario.

Learn more about Murray's Army career and his leadership of Army Futures Command here