Maryland leaders make pitch to land Army Futures Command

Amazon’s HQ2 isn’t the only high-profile headquarters project Maryland’s pursuing: The state wants to be the home of a new Army command dedicated to force modernization and readiness. 

Gov. Larry Hogan and Maryland federal lawmakers have each sent letters to the Pentagon urging leaders to locate the Army Futures Command in the Free State, pitching its “unmatched research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) enterprise” and its “vibrant academic and defense-focused entrepreneurial ecosystem.” 

That includes 150,000 civilian and military employees working in high-tech fields, Maryland’s congressional delegation wrote in a letter to Army Secretary Mark Esper, as well as a wealth of aerospace and defense companies. They range from small and mid-size businesses to industry titans such as Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), which is headquartered in Falls Church but has a sizable presence in Maryland.

“We applaud your efforts to streamline and otherwise improve the Army development and acquisition process, and Maryland stands ready to partner with you in this ambitious and transformative initiative,” added Hogan, a Republican, in his own letter to Esper.

The Army announced in October at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in D.C. that it was standing up the command. The plan, Defense News reported, is to realign the Army’s modernization priorities under a new org chart underscoring six priorities: long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift, the network, air-and-missile defense and soldier lethality. 

The Army is studying 30 cities, according to Breaking Defense, where it would take a few floors in an office building and mix and match enlisted personnel with civilians and academics — less command post with flags flying out front and more Defense Innovation Unit, or DIUx. That organization was created by the Department of Defense under former Secretary Ash Carter to create inroads with Silicon Valley and make it easier to do business with the Pentagon. It also has offices in Boston and Austin, Texas.

The 30 cities will be whittled down to 10, then four, and site visits of that final group will yield a winner. The public remarks around an urban location would seem to focus Maryland’s efforts on Baltimore, which would provide entree to Johns Hopkins University, its Applied Physics Laboratory down Interstate 95 in Laurel and a few University of Maryland campuses, all of which have R&D partnerships with the DOD and companies such as Northrop Grumman. 

I've reached out to economic development officials in Fairfax and Arlington counties to see if they, too, have offered up locations to the Army and will update this post when I hear back.

It would also offer easy access to a RDT&E infrastructure that includes a variety of commands and research labs located in the state, the letter from the congressional delegation notes. 

That includes Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland, and the Army Research Lab in Adelphi, which the delegation hopes won’t see its work — and funding — disrupted by the creation of the Futures Command.

It’s also worth nothing that U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown, a Democrat representing the state’s 4th District who’s leading the Futures Command effort, is a retired colonel in the United States Army Reserve and a former aviator who earned a Bronze Star in Iraq. 

Initial operations are expected this summer, with the Futures Command fully up and running by summer 2019.