Futures Command (AFC) was established in 2018 as a peer of FORSCOM, TRADOC, and Army Materiel Command (AMC), the other Army commands (ACOMs—providing forces, training and doctrine, and materiel respectively).[21][22] the test support level from ATECCite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). for competition with near-peers, who have updated their capabilities.[23][24]
AFC declared its Full Operational Capability (FOC) in July 2019,[25][26] after an initial one-year period.[27]
The FY2020 budget allocated $30 billion for the top six modernization priorities over the next five years.[28] The $30 billion came from $8 billion in cost avoidance and $22 billion in terminations.[28][29]
Over 30 projects[30][31] are envisioned to become the materiel basis needed for overmatching any potential competitors in the continuum of conflict over the next ten years,[32][33] in Multi-domain operations (MDO).[34][35][36][37][38]
We're moving out and there's no turning back. We've shown the will to act over the last year, and now we have to show the will to follow through.
— Then-Under Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy[39][40]
Friendly forces (denoted in black)[41] operating in Multi-domains (gray, yellow, light blue, dark gray, and dark blue) —Space, Cyber, Air, Land, and Maritime respectively— cooperate across domains, working as an integrated force against adversaries (denoted in red). These operations will disrupt these adversaries, and present them multiple simultaneous dilemmas to encourage adversaries to return to competition rather than continue a conflict.[42]
According to Secretary McCarthy, there will be three elements in Futures Command:[43]
Futures and Concepts: assess gaps (needs versus opportunities,[44] given a threat).[43] Concepts for realizable future systems (with readily harvestable content)[45][46]: for definitions of terms, such as '6.3' will flow into TRADOC doctrine, manuals, and training programs.
Combat Development: stabilized concepts.[45][46] Balance the current state of technology and the cash-flow requirements of the defense contractors providing the technology, that they become deliverable experiments, demonstrations, and prototypes, in an iterative process of acquisition.[47] (See #Value stream)
Combat Systems: experiments, demonstrations, and prototypes.[48] Transition to the acquisition, production, and sustainment programs of AMC.[48][49]
Then-Secretary of the Army, Mark Esper emphasized that the 2018 administrative infrastructure for the Futures and Concepts Center (formerly ARCIC) and United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) (formerly RDECOM) remains in place at their existing locations.[50] What has changed or will change is the layers of command (operational control, or OPCON)[51] needed to make a decision.[50]
You've got to remain open to change, you've got to remain flexible, you've [got] to remain accessible. That is the purpose of this command.
Under Secretary McCarthy characterized a Cross-Functional Team (CFT) as a team of teams, led by a requirements leader, program manager, sustainer and tester.[53]
Each CFT must strike a balance for itself amid constraints: the realms of requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment.
A balance is needed in order for a CFT in order to produce a realizable concept before a competitor achieves it.[17]
CFTs[17][54] for materiel and capabilities were first structured in a task force, in order to de-layer the Army Commands. Each CFT addresses a capability gap, which the Army must now match for its future:
there can be a Capability Development Integration Directorate (CDID), for each CFT.[Note 1] Initially, the CFTs were placed as needed; eventually they might each co-locate at a Center of Excellence (CoE) listed below. For example, the Aviation CoE at Fort Rucker, in coordination with the Aviation Program Executive Officer (PEO), also contains the Vertical Lift CFT and the Aviation CDID.
Modernization reform is the priority for AFC, in order to achieve readiness for the future.
The CFTs will be involved in all three of AFC's elements: Futures and concepts, Combat development, and Combat systems.[55] "We were never above probably a total of eight people" — BG Wally Rugen, Aviation CFT.[56] Four of the eight CFT leads have now shifted from dual-hat jobs to full-time status. Each CFT lead is mentored by a 4-star general.[56]
Although AFC and the CFTs are a top priority of the Department of the Army, as AFC and the CFTs are expected to unify control of the $30 billion-dollar modernization budget,[57][26] "The new command will not tolerate a zero-defects mentality. 'But if you fail, we'd like you to fail early and fail cheap,' because progress and success often builds on failure." —Ryan McCarthy:[58] Holland notes that prototyping applies to the conceptual realm ('harvestable content') as much as prototyping applies to the hardware realm.[45][46]
A 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report[59] cautions that lessons learned from the CFT pilot[17] are yet to be applied; Holland notes that this organizational critique applies to prototyping hardware, a different realm than concept refinement ("scientific research is a fundamentally different activity than technology development").[45][46]
The CFTs,[Note 1] as prioritized 1 through 6 by the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA), each have to consider constraints: a balance of requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test, resourcing, costing, and sustainment.[17][53]
The Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and education, Personnel and Facilities (DOTMLPF) method of mission planning was instituted to quantify tradeoffs in joint planning.[51] TRADOC's Mission Command CoE uses DOTMLPF.[60]
DOTMLPF will be used for modernization of the Army beyond materiel alone, which (as of 2019) is the current focus of the CFTs.[61][62]
The updated modernization strategy, to move from concept to doctrine as well, will be unveiled by summer 2019.[61]
DOTMLPF (doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities) itself is planned as a driver for modernization.[63][61] The plan is to have an MDO-capable Army by 2028, and an MDO-ready Army by 2035.[61][64]
TRADOC, ASA (ALT), and AFC are tied together in this process, according to Vice Chief McConville.[65] AFC will have to be "a little bit disruptive [but not upsetting to the existing order]" in order to institute reforms within budget in a timely way.[66]
The ASA(ALT), or Assistant Secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics, and technology is currently (2018) Dr. Bruce Jette. The ASA (ALT) is the civilian executive overseeing both the acquisition and the sustainment processes of the Department of the Army. The ASA(ALT) will coordinate the acquisition portion of modernization reform with AFC.[67]: Para. 1c [19]
Congress has given the Army Other Transaction Authority (OTA),[68][Note 2] which allows the PEOs to enter into Full Rate Production quicker by permitting the services to control their own programs of record, rather than DoD.[69] This strips out one layer of bureaucracy as of 2018.[69][70][71]
MTA (middle tier acquisition authority) is another tool available to Program Managers and Contracting Officers.[72]
In addition, the Program Executive Officers (PEOs) of ASA (ALT) are to maintain a dotted-line relationship[Note 1] (i.e., coordination) with Futures Command.[80][43]
There is now a PEO for Rapid Capabilities, to get rapid turnaround. The Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO)'s PEO gets two program managers, one for rapid prototyping, and one for rapid acquisition, of a capability.[81] The Rapid capabilities office (RCO) does not develop its own requirements; rather, the RCO gets the requirements from the Cross-functional team (CFT).[82] Rapid Capabilities (RCO) was headed by Tanya Skeen as PEO RCO[80] but Skeen moved to DoD, in late 2018.[83] In 2019 RCO became the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO)[84]Redstone Arsenal, headed by LTG L. Neil Thurgood,[85] lately of ASA (ALT)'s Army Hypersonics office.[86][87]
The CG of Army Futures Command (AFC) is set to announce full operational capability (FOC) 31 July 2019.[88][89]
XM1299[90][91] Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) a descendant of the Paladin self-propelled howitzer. Picatinny Arsenal In September 2020 an AI kill chain used a hypervelocity munition launched from such a howitzer to intercept a cruise missile surrogate.[92]
The Army G8 is monitoring just how producible (Milestone C) the upcoming materiel will be; for the moment, the G8 is funding the materiel.[31] Follow-up on Modernization reviews is forthcoming, on a regular basis, according to the G8.[93][94][95]
Long Range Precision Fires (LRPF) is a systematic program to extend the artillery's range.[99] In 2018 tests showed the range was doubled.[100][101]
The current Paladin (M109A6) cannon range is doubling (M109A7).[102]: minute 2:30 [103] An operational test of components of Long range cannon (LRC) is scheduled for 2020.[104] LRC is complementary to Extended range cannon artillery (ERCA),[104][99] the XM1299 Extended Range Cannon Artillery howitzer.[90][105][91] Investigations for ERCA in 2025: rocket-boosted artillery shells:[100] Tests of the Multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) XM30 rocket shell have demonstrated a near-doubling of the range of the munition, using the Tail controlled guided multiple launch rocket system, or TC-G.[106] The TRADOC capability manager (TCM) Field Artillery Brigade - DIVARTY has been named a command position.[Note 3]
An autoloader for ERCA's 95-pound shells is under development at Picatinny Arsenal,[90] to support a sustained firing rate of 10 rounds a minute from ERCA.[105] A robotic vehicle for carrying the shells is a separate prototyping effort at Futures Command's Army Applications Lab.[90][107]
The Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) is slated to replace the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) in 2023.[100] PrSM flight testing is delayed beyond 2 August 2019, the anticipated date for the expiration of the INF Treaty, which set 499 kilometer limits on intermediate-range missiles.[108] (David Sanger and Edward Wong project that the earliest test of a longer range missile could be a ground-launched version of a Tomahawk cruise missile,[109] followed by a test of a mobile ground launched IRBM with a range of 1800–2500 miles before year-end 2019.[109][110]) The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)[111] was approved 9 December 2019, which allows the Pentagon to continue testing such missiles in FY2020; Paul McCleary points out that Congress will still need an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) for the prospective missile acquisitions.[110] The Lockheed PrSM prototype flew its 10 December 2019 first launch at White Sands Missile Range, in a 150-mile test, and an overhead detonation; the Raytheon PrSM prototype is delayed from its planned November launch,[112] and Raytheon has now withdrawn from the PrSM risk reduction phase.[113] The PrSM's range and accuracy, the interfaces to HIMARS launcher, and test software, met expectations.[112][114][115]
For targets beyond the PrSM's range, the Army's RCCTO will seek a mid-range missile prototype by 2023, with a reach from 1000 to 2000 miles.[116]
The Long range hypersonic weapon (LRHW) will use precision targeting data against anti-access area denial (A2AD) radars and other critical infrastructure of near-peer competitors by 2023.[117][71] LRHW does depend on stable funding.[94][118][119]
Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) 7.0 is the vehicle for an Multi-domain task force's artillery battery very similar to a THAAD battery: beginning in 2020, these batteries will train for a hypersonic glide vehicle which is common to the Joint forces.[87] The Long range hypersonic weapon (LRHW)[117] glide vehicle is to be launched from transporter erector launchers.[87][120][118] Tests of the Common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) to be used by the Army and Navy were meeting expectations in 2020.[121]
In August 2020 the director of Assured precision navigation and timing (APNT) CFT announced tests which integrate the entire fires kill chain, from initial detection to final destruction. William B. Nelson announced the flow of satellite data from the European theater (Germany), and AI processing of AFATDS targeting data to the fires units.[122][123]
In September 2020 an AI kill chain was formulated in seconds; a hypervelocity (speeds up to Mach 5) munition,[124] launched from a descendant of the Paladin, intercepted a cruise missile surrogate.[92][125]
Three flight tests of LRHW are scheduled in 2021.[126]
At Yuma Proving Ground (YPG), Firestorm (a Project Convergence AI node)[132][133][134] sent targeting coordinates to Remote Weapons Stations, which were proxies for the Robotic Combat Vehicles and Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicles. A CROWS was slewed to the aimpoint, awaiting the human commander's order to fire.[135] Firestorm aids and partakes of the Common operational picture (COP) shared by the AI hub at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.[135][136] Satellite-based, F-35 based, and Army ground-based targeting data were shared in real-time during Firestorm's operation with the AI hubs to produce effects at YPG.[137][138]
An Advanced Powertrain Demonstrator, compact enough for AMPVs, Bradleys, OMFVs, or RCVs, can generate 1,000 horsepower from diesel.[140] Alternatively, the demonstrator can generate electrical power: 160 kiloWatts for SHORAD high-energy lasers, or for propulsion of a 50-ton vehicle in quiet mode, for brief periods.[140]
A ground mobility vehicle competition, bids closing 26 October 2018[141]
The JLTV was approved for full rate production in June 2019.[142] Joint Modernization Command (JMC) is supporting a TCM Stryker study on the optimum number of JLTVs for light infantry brigades.[143]
AFC's Futures and concepts center is proposing a strategy to guide the electrification of the GCVs, using the JLTV as an example for a step-by-step pathway and transition plan for electrification.[144][145][45][46]
The Maneuver CDID (MCDID) is undertaking the requirements development for electrification of Tactical and Combat Vehicles in September 2020;[146] General Wesley had previously announced a plan in April 2020 for the modernization of Tactical and Combat Vehicles using the JLTV electrification plan as a prototype template of the electrification process.[146][45]
Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF):[147][148] approved by joint requirements oversight council.[128] Two vendors were selected to build competing prototype light tanks (MPF), with contract award in 2022.[149] A unit of 82nd Airborne Division will begin assessment of prototype MPFs beginning in March 2020.[150]
Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV):[96] soliciting input, in requirements definition stage; the 2018 requirement was that 2 OMFVs fit in a C-17.[128][151][45][46] A request for proposal (RFP) for a vehicle prototype was placed 29 March 2019.[96][152] On 16 January 2020 the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle solicitation was cancelled, as a middle tier acquisition in its early stage; the requirements and schedule are being revisited.[153] The FY2021 budget request has been adjusted accordingly.[154][155]
An Army development team will not be an OMFV competitor as of 17 September 2020.[156]
Robotic Combat Vehicles (RCVs):[157][96] General Murray envisions that by FY2023 critical decisions will be made on RCVs after years of experimentation.[158][159]
The FVL CFT has secured approval for the requirements in all four of its Lines of Effort:[162][163]
Future Vertical Lift will use the DoD modular open systems approach (MOSA),[12][164] an integrated business and technical strategy in FARA,[165][166][167][168][169] and in FLRAA:[170][171][172] Both FLRAA and FARA are to enter service by Fiscal Year 2030.[173]
Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD): prototypes by two teams to replace UH-60 with Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA).[174] The tilt-rotor FLRAA demonstrator by Bell is flying unmanned (October 2019); it logged 100 hours of flight testing by April 2019.[175] Both Bell and Sikorsky-Boeing received contract awards to compete in a risk reduction effort (CDRRE) for FLRAA in March 2020.[176][175][177] The risk reduction effort will be a 2-phase, 2-year competition. The competition will transition technologies (powertrain, drivetrain and control laws) from the previous demonstrators (JMR-TDs) of 2018–2019 to requirements, conceptual designs, and acquisition approach for the weapon system.[176][178] The Aviation PEO would then be able to present an acquisition strategy to the Acquisition Executive (potentially a full and open competition for FLRAA in a future Fiscal Year).[176][179][180]
The Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) is smaller than FLRAA. The Army issued requests for proposals (RFPs) for FARA.[181] RFPs were due in December 2018;[182][183][166][184] in April 2019, the Army awarded 5 Other transaction authority (OTA) contracts[185] to vendors with a Milestone C in 2028.[186][187] Each agreement spans the entire acquisition process, from design, to prototype, to flight test, to low-volume production, to fielding, to full-rate production (Milestone C);[186][188] but each agreement is subject to cancellation, if need be. Competing FARA demonstrators will also be built by Bell, and by Sikorsky, in three year efforts beginning in 2020.[189][190]
Future tactical unmanned aircraft systems (FTUAS): drones which do not require runways.[191][192][193][194]
Under Secretary McCarthy notes that Soldier feedback remains an item for discussion in the Future Vertical Lift CFT.[195][41]UH-60s are serving as surrogate FARAs for experiments designed to pierce the enemy's anti-access/area denial (A2AD) environment, and bring a mesh network forward.[163]
Mobile, Expeditionary Network: In Fiscal Year 2019, the network CFT will leverage Network Integration Evaluation 18.2[196] for experiments with brigade level scalability.[197] Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) "is not a new or separate network but rather a concept"—PEO C3T.[198] Avoid overspecifying the requirements for Integrated Tactical Network[49][198][199][200][201][202][203] Information Systems Initial Capabilities Document. Instead, meet operational needs,[204][197][205] such as interoperability with other networks,[206][207]: minute 26:40 [203] and release ITN capabilities incrementally.[208][49][198]
Up through 2028, every two years the Army will insert new capability sets for ITN (Capability sets '21, '23, '25, etc.).[209][49][198] and take feedback from Soldier-led experiment & evaluation.[210][211][212][13][213]
Firestorm was made possible by a mesh network — improvising an MEO, and then a GEO satellite link between JBLM to YPG.[139] There are plans to have a Project Convergence 2021.[214]
Five Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF) awards have been granted to five vendors via the Network CFT and PEO C3T's request for white papers. That request, for a roll-on/roll-off kit that integrates all functions of mission command on the Army Network, was posted at the National Spectrum Consortium and FedBizOpps, and yielded awards within eight months.[215][Note 2] Two more awards are forthcoming.
The Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO)'s Emerging Technologies Office structured a competition to find superior AI/Machine Learning algorithms for electronic warfare, from a field of 150 contestants, over a three-month period.[216][Note 2]
The Multi-Domain Operations Task Force (MDO TF) is standing up an experimental Electronic Warfare Platoon to prototype an estimated 1000 EW soldiers needed for the 31 BCTs of the active Army.[217][218]
An Army leader dashboard from PEO Enterprise Information Systems is underway.[219][220] The dashboard has been renamed Vantage.[221] Cloud-service-provider agnostic abstraction layers are in use, which allows merging the staff work in G-3/5/7 for cyber/EW (electronic warfare), mission command, and space.[222] The "seamless, real-time flow of data" across multiple domains (land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace) is an objective for G-6, as well as the sensor-to-shooter work at Futures command.[223][222][224]
Fort Irwin, Fort Hood, Joint Base San Antonio, and Joint Base Lewis McChord have 5G experiments on wireless connectivity between forward operating bases and tactical operations centers, as well as nonaircraft Augmented reality support of maintenance and training.[225]
Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS)[49]: p.42 second limited user test is scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter of FY20.[228][229] On 1 May 2019 an Engagement Operations Center (EOC) for the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) was delivered to the Army, at Huntsville, Alabama.[230] IAMD[231][232] is intended to integrate the following:
Lower tier air and missile defense sensor (LTAMDS)[228] —PEO RCO is accelerating LTAMDS experimentation by downselecting to two competitors with award by 2023[233][Note 2][234] The fielding aim for LTDAMDS is 2022.[235]
LTAMDS uses gallium nitride (GaN) RF elements. It replaces the Patriot radar,[236] fits on a C-17, and feeds data to IBCS.[234][235]
Maneuver short-range air defense (MSHORAD)[228][241] with laser cannon prototypes in 2020,[242]High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstrator (HEL-TVD) 2019 fielding 50 kW lasers on Strykers[243][117] in 2021 and 2022 to two battalions per year.[244][245][246]
F-35,[247] Aegis, Patriot, LTAMDS, and THAAD radars will interoperate.[236][248] On 30 August 2019 at Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein atoll, THAAD Battery E-62 successfully intercepted a medium range ballistic missile (MRBM), using a radar which was well-separated from the interceptors;[249][250] the next step tested Patriot missiles as interceptors[231] while using THAAD radars as sensors;[249] a THAAD radar has a longer detection range than a Patriot radar.[249] THAAD Battery E-62 engaged the MRBM without knowledge of just when the medium range ballistic missile had launched.[249][250]
In July 2020 a Limited user test (LUT) of IBCS was initiated at WSMR; the test will run into mid-September.[251] The LUT was originally scheduled for May but was delayed to handle the COVID-19 safety protocols.[229] The first of several LUTs of IBCS, by an ADA battalion was successfully run in August 2020.[252] IBCS successfully integrated data from two sensors (Sentinel and Patriot radars), and shot down two drones (cruise missile surrogates) with two Patriot missiles in the presence of jamming;[252] In the week after, by 20 August 2020 two more disparate threats (cruise missile and ballistic missile) were launched and intercepted;[253][254] the ADA battalion then ran hundreds of drills denoting hundreds of threats for the remainder of the IBCS tests (the increased effort occupied the entire unit);[255] the real-world data serve as a sanity check for Monte Carlo simulations of an array of physical scenarios amounting to hundreds of thousands of cases.[256][257] IBCS created a "single uninterrupted composite track of each threat" and handed off each threat for separate disposition by the air and missile defense's integrated fire control network (IFCN).[258] The same battalion running the LUT, for both IBCS, and LTAMDS radar, is scheduled to run the Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOTE) in 2021,[251][259] and running well into 2022.[257]
Although on 21 August 2019 the Missile defense agency (MDA) cancelled the $5.8 billion contract for the Redesigned kill vehicle (RKV),[260][261][262][248] the Army's 100th Missile Defense Brigade will continue to use the Exo-Atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV). The current Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) programs continue per plan, with 64 ground-based interceptors (GBIs) in the missile fields for 2019. C2BMC (Command and Control Battle Management and Communications), was developed by the Missile defense agency (as a development organization) and is integrated with GMD, as demonstrated by FTG-11 on 25 March 2019.[263]: 15:00
The TRADOC capability manager (TCM) for Strategic Missile Defense (SMD) has accepted the charter for DOTMLPF for the Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT).[264][64]
Next-generation squad weapon: Expect 100,000 to be fielded to the Close Combat Force:[15] Infantry, Armor, Cavalry, Special Forces, and Combat engineers. Tests at Fort Benning in 2019. —Chief of Staff Milley[270]
Nine thousand systems, with two drones apiece are being purchased over a three-year period for the 9-man infantry squads heading to Afghanistan.[271]
Enhanced night vision goggles (ENVG)-B, will be fielded to an Armor brigade combat team (ABCT) going to South Korea in October 2019[272][273][15]
Synthetic training environment (STE)—a CFT devoted to an augmented reality system[274][275] to aid planning, using mapping techniques, even at squad level[276][277] will begin fielding by 2021.[278][279][280] In October 2019 the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) prototype is being used by Special Operations for planning actual missions.[281][282]
In 2019 DoD planners are exercising DOTMLPF in planning, per the National Defense Strategy (NDS),[283]
in the shift from counterinsurgency (COIN) to competition with near-peer powers.[283] The evaluations from planners' scenarios will be determining materiel and organization by late 2020.[283][64][284][285]
Futures Command is formulating multiyear Enterprise campaign plans, in 2019.[286][287] The planning process includes Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), AFC's cross-functional teams (CFTs), Futures and Concepts (FCC), Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), and Army Reserve's Houston-based 75th Innovation Command. At this stage, one goal is to formulate the plans in simple, coherent language which nests within the national security strategic documents.[286][288]
By Acquisition or Business System category (ACAT or BSC). The Weapon systems in each ACAT are sorted alphabetically by Weapon system name. Each weapon system might also be in several variants (Lettered); a weapon system's variants might be severally and simultaneously in the following phases of its Life Cycle, namely — °Materiel Solution Analysis; °Technology Maturation & Risk Reduction; °Engineering & Manufacturing Development; °Production & Deployment; °Operations & Support
^ abJP-1 p.xxi has the definition of operational control (OPCON). Note that "command authority may not be delegated" (COCOM being command authority). p.xxii has the definition of administrative control (ADCON): one application being coordinating authority.
Prometheus, which is AI software, combs through the data for potential threats and targets.
SHOT, which is also software, tracks each target on a custody list, correlating each target's current location, signature, and threat assessment, with a list of candidate fires countermeasures, ranked by capability, range to the target, kill radius, etc. "SHOT then computes the optimal match of weapons to targets", and passes the list to AFATDS.
Human commanders choose whether to fire, or not, from the list of fires assets (Nelson notes that ERCA and Grey Eagle drones are to be added to the list of fires assets— currently M777 howitzers and MLRS 270 rocket launchers in the upcoming tests, August 2020).
satellites perform Battle damage assessment, to update the list of threats and targets.
^ abJen Judson (20 August 2019) US Missile Defense Agency boss reveals his goals, challenges on the job Increase the discrimination of the radars and other sensors. Use Large aperture sensors. Use Space-based missile sensors. An SM-3 Block IIA missile test against ICBM is scheduled for 2020. Plan out the detection, control and engagement; the sensors, the command-and-control, the fire control, and the weapons (the kill vehicles).
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