While the Army Futures Command headquarters location remains to be announced, the stage has been set for initial operating capability of the new command by July 1 and full operational status within a year.

Under a general order signed by Secretary of the Army Mark T. Esper, the new command will report to the Army secretary through the Army chief of staff, and will coordinate with the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology on all matters related to research, development and acquisition.

In what the order calls the “first tranche,” the Army Futures Command—to be known as AFC—will absorb parts of the Training and Doctrine Command and Army Materiel Command.

The Research, Development and Engineering Command and the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity, both located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., will be transferred from the Army Materiel Command to AFC. The transfer includes authority, responsibility, any subordinate elements, personnel, equipment and funding.

The Army Capability Integration Center at Fort Eustis, Va.; the Capability Development and Integration Directorates and associated battle labs at Fort Benning, Ga.; and the TRADOC Analysis Center, spread over Fort Leavenworth, Kan., White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Fort Lee, Va., and Monterey, Calif., will be reassigned from TRADOC to AFC.

The transfers could begin as early as July 1, and must be completed by July 1, 2019, under Esper’s order. Additional command reassignments are expected, including a decision about authority over program executive offices that now report to the assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology.

Esper’s order also permanently establishes the eight cross-functional teams, which are aligned with the modernization priorities set last year by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley.

An announcement about where AFC will be located is expected in early July. The headquarters, with about 500 uniformed and civilian personnel, is not expected to be located on an Army installation.