U.S. Army Pushes Autonomous Capabilities Initiative Forward

On October 1, 2026, Acting Secretary of the Army redesignated the branch’s Futures and Concepts Command as the U.S. Army Futures and Autonomous Systems Command, or FASCOM. As announced at the annual AUSA conference in Washington D.C., a three-star General will head the new command.

Pursuant to this directive, the Army will rapidly conduct autonomous force development, the structure of which will integrate autonomous capability into six formation areas including aviation, armor, fires, sustainment, engineer and training. The directive also designates a Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Autonomy. This Acquisition Executive will “assume single acquisition authority and rapid procurement of the Army’s priority autonomous capability.” The Army’s first priority will be to acquire and field autonomous fires, combat vehicles, watercraft resupply, breaching, reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition, as well as teaming between crewed and uncrewed platforms, no later than fiscal year 2028. Finally, the directive states that the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs will expand Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System Specialists and Robot Technicians to all applicable Army units. As Acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve noted, “This goes beyond drones.  FASCOM will pioneer operational concepts that harness autonomous capabilities across all warfighting functions.”

You can read the memorandum here. If you have any questions, please contact the Government Contracting Group.