The U.S. Army has traditionally had long development cycles, and that will no longer work as China and Russia continue to develop new capabilities, Lt. Gen. Eric J. Wesley of the Army Capabilities Integration Center told a crowd at Capital Factory in Austin Wednesday.
Meanwhile, startups move fast, have low development costs and see things the Army may not. But the Army's procurement and development process is usually too slow and too hard to break into to make it worth an attempt for startups.
“They want to make things that are effective and useful to this country," Wesley said. "They don’t want to bust through all that bureaucracy. So, what’s the solution? We’re coming to you.”
Wesley was in Austin to discuss the Army's Futures Command center that last week selected Austin as its home. The command, which will be housed in a University of Texas building downtown, will be the nerve center for the Army's massive R&D budget and its largest restructuring project since the 1970s. It is expected to employ about 500 people, but Wesley said the employment figure is dwarfed by the impact that Futures Command will have on startups and innovators in Austin and beyond.
Wesley said the Army will have space in Capital Factory and visit other accelerators around Austin to find innovators with potentially useful innovations that the Army could buy.
“We want all the best ideas, and those reside in places like this," he said.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Capital Factory Founder Joshua Baer both said they see the Futures Command center as a pivotal addition to Austin's tech scene that will have a huge impact in coming years -- similar to how MCC helped put Austin on the path to being a tech hub in the early 1980s.
“What more unique contribution could this city be making to our national security than of being one element fostering innovation and creativity," Adler said. "This is right up our alley.”
Here's a video of Wesley talking about the Futures Command center at Capital Factory on Wednesday.
