REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (Jan. 8, 2025) – In 2024, the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center remained steadfast in its mission to meet the needs of the Warfighter.
The Center recognized its role in Army history in October, with a 62-year anniversary celebration that spanned across its six locations from coast to coast – with its teams at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama; Oahu, Hawaii; Corpus Christi, Texas; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Moffett Field, California; and Fort Eustis, Virginia, all participating.
But while it acknowledged its place in history, the Center’s vision is firmly set ahead.
“Throughout its 60-plus-year history, the Aviation & Missile Center has done some amazing things in ensuring that our Warfighters have absolutely the best equipment on the battlefield. But we can’t rest on our laurels now,” said Center Director Dr. James Kirsch.
The Center started the year with a new director for its Software, Simulation, Systems Engineering and Integration Directorate, with Dr. Stephanie Reitmeier taking the reins of the Center’s largest directorate. Military Deputy Shannon Thompson was also formally promoted to colonel in a June ceremony.
In July, Army Senior Research Scientist Dr. Donna Joyce was awarded the Presidential Rank Award, the highest recognition that can be awarded a civil servant. Joyce received the award from Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, in a ceremony held at the Pentagon.
At the end of the year, it was a bittersweet goodbye as teammates wished a fond farewell to Systems Readiness Directorate Director Keith Darrow, who retired after more than forty years of service as both a Soldier and civil servant.
“Keith Darrow is a true civil servant who embodied the Army values throughout his career, both in uniform and out. He is a dedicated advocate for Army aviation, and we will miss his leadership.”
As for technological milestones, the Technology Development Directorate fired the first Precision Strike Missiles, or PrSM, in a tactical setting from the Autonomous Multidomain Launcher. Its engineers and scientists demonstrated the first heterogenous swarm with sixteen different launched effects with different capabilities under the control of a single operator executing three simultaneous missions.
SRD issued its first broad airworthiness release for small unmanned aerial systems under 20 lbs. that enables units to experiment and train with a capability proliferating across the world.
Team members also helped the Army recover from a catastrophic windstorm in Colorado that damaged a large amount of aviation platforms.
The Software, Simulation, Systems Engineering and Integration Directorate established themselves in 2024 as the cutting edge of Army software development transformation.
Needless to say, it was a busy year.
As the Center looks toward 2025 – and beyond, it will continue to strive toward a careful balance of prioritizing reliability, safety and other critical factors while focusing on what’s essential for rapid deployment. It won’t be easy, but as Kirsch likes to say, the Center thrives on solving hard problems.
“For everybody who comes through our organization -- from senior leaders to our congressional delegations to other organizations that visits -- what comes through clearly is that our people are passionate about their mission," he said. "We are dedicated to providing the absolute best capability into the hands of our Soldiers. As long as we maintain that passion, we will always be an organization that the Army is looking for.
“Frankly, we are the Army's experts in aviation and missile systems. That's us, and so one of our key goals is to continue to build that pipeline so that we are always that expertise on which the Army relies.”
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As part of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, a subordinate of the U.S. Army Futures Command, DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Center serves as the Army’s primary center for developing, integrating, demonstrating and sustaining Army aviation and missile systems. For more than six decades, DEVCOM AvMC has delivered cutting-edge aviation and missile technologies, and it continues to drive the advancement of future capabilities to ensure war-winning future readiness and battlefield dominance.
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