The Army’s Training and Doctrine Command is leaving Fort Eustis in Virginia and will merge with Futures Command in Austin, Texas. (Kendall Warner, The Virginian-Pilot/TNS)
AUSTIN, Texas — The Army will house the headquarters of a merged Futures Command and Training and Doctrine Command in Austin instead of Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., as part of its efforts to downsize the service and reduce general officer billets.
The merged command will be the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, according to Gen. Randy George, Army Chief of Staff. Its primary headquarters will remain in the Texas capital because “we like what’s down there as far as the culture, the [Army] Software Factory, the ideas for innovation and change,” George told the House Appropriations Committee earlier this month.
The changes are part of the Army’s efforts to restructure and downsize to fill an order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. That includes a reduction of about 20% of the military’s four-star generals and admirals.
Futures Command and TRADOC are both led by four-star general officers. The Army has two additional four-star commands — Army Materiel Command and Army Forces Command — which are also absorbing other missions.
The combination of Futures and TRADOC “aligns force generation, design and development,” said Lt. Col. Jamie Dobson, spokeswoman for Army Futures Command.
Further details about the merger and plans for organization structure are under the purview of the Department of the Army and not yet available, she said.
“This will be the most significant transformation the Army has seen in a generation, and the important thing to understand is that these changes will make the Army more lethal,” Dobson said.
Futures Command, the Army’s newest command, was established in 2018 to better forecast and prepare for the battlefields of the future and to innovate warfighting technology at a faster pace. Austin was chosen as its home to be outside of the Army’s traditional footprints and put it closer to industry and academia. It has since established working relationships with technology startup incubators and colleges including the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University in College Station.
Its main offices are within the University of Texas System’s high-rise building downtown, and an Army privatized housing partner maintains three multi-million-dollar homes nearby to house top officers and leaders.
TRADOC was established in 1973 and operates the Army’s 32 schoolhouses and creates the policies that guide and develop soldiers and leaders. It also oversees the Army Center of Military History, the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and the Center of Initial Military Training at Fort Eustis.
The command moved to Fort Eustis in 2011, shortly after the Virginia Army base consolidated with Langley Air Force Base. It is about 180 miles south of Washington, near Newport News.
