Gen. Mike Murray Confirmed for Futures Command
Lt. General John M. Murray has been confirmed as the new commanding officer of the US Army’s brand new Futures Command. At the beginning of the month Overt Defense reported that Murray had been nominated to head up the new command, that nomination has now been confirmed.
Following Senate confirmation the appointment was announced via the Futures Command’s newly set up social media pages. The command posted a short tweet greeting the confirmation, saying: “We would like to congratulate LTG (P) John M. Murray on his confirmation to become the first commanding general of the @ArmyFutures Command.”
Congress first received Murray’s nomination from the President on 16th July, 2018, it was forwarded on to the Senate Armed Services committee and was approved through a voice vote on the 20th August. There has not yet, at the time of publication, been a full statement from Murray or the US Army on his appointment. The new command, which will be based in Austin, Texas, is already operational but is due to stand up in the next few days.
The command’s website currently has a clock counting down to the Activation Ceremony scheduled for the morning of the 24th August, 2018. The new website also gives a concise explanation of what the commands objectives will be:
“Who We Are:
At Army Futures Command, we believe in utilizing the best expertise, whatever the source, to create innovative solutions faster and better. We’re on a quest to modernize the way the Army does business by creating a space of endless possibilities to explore, develop, and test new methods, organizations, and technologies. Above all else, we want to make sure Soldiers have what they need, before they need it, to defend tomorrow… today.”
The website also lists some of Army Futures Commands partner organisations, including a map showing their locations. The partner organisations include a whole host of acronyms including: TARDEC, ARMDEC, CDID, TRAC, Battle Lab, RDECOM, CERDEC, the Army Research Lab, ECBC, and NSRDEC. These are the US Army’s primary research, development and analysis hubs which will feed into the Futures Commands aims, which we discussed in an earlier article here.