Abstract

JDAL 1,2 Supporting capability development with analysis Today, the Army is conducting its most significant restructuring effort since 1973, designing and establishing a new Army futures command (AFC). The driving force behind this effort is a concern that the Army’s current acquisition system would make a future near- peer fight very challenging. Whatever its final form, a modernized, AFC-led acquisition system will hinge upon the Army improving its capabilities development and associated requirements-determination processes, which will necessitate an enterprise-level refocus across the Army’s analysis community. Leaders within the Army analysis community, in coordination with the task force designing AFC, recently drafted an initial concept for executing integrated analysis that supports the new command. Key to implementing this concept will be a commitment to supporting capabilities development. The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has spearheaded the Army capabilities development for the past 40 years. However, TRADOC and the Army have at times struggled to define and evolve capability requirements. Our decentralized capabilities-development enterprise can lead each of the Army’s branch proponents to establish requirements that can optimize that branch’s functional capabilities. This leaves Army senior leaders to adjudicate and prioritize these competing functional requirements as they attempt to address