- The Army’s Fires Future Capability Directorate has concluded Focused Excursion 26-3
- The five-day event examined battlefield sensors and future reconnaissance concepts
- Participants tested operational hypotheses through discussions and tabletop exercises
The U.S. Army’s Fires Future Capability Directorate, a.k.a. FFCD, has concluded Focused Excursion 26-3, a five-day event at Aberdeen Proving Ground designed to examine battlefield sensors and future reconnaissance concepts, according to a post on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.
What Was the Purpose of FE 26-3?
The third event in the 2026 Focused Excursion series brought concept developers, scientists and technologists together from Aug. 24–28 to connect military theory with scientific research. As part of the Army’s “campaign of learning,” FE 26-3 tested operational hypotheses, refined concepts and generated data to inform future warfighting approaches.
Participants from science, analysis, concepts, threat and legal communities held facilitated discussions and tabletop exercises to examine hypotheses in simulated combat environments.
The exercises focused on how Army forces could operate, organize and equip themselves differently in 2040 and beyond by using emerging sensor technologies.
How Could Sensor Technologies Shape Future Operations?
FE 26-3 examined how the future Army could use interconnected sensing networks to maintain situational awareness in contested environments. Participants considered scenarios involving dispersed combat formations and the need for forces to collect, analyze and distribute target data. The event generated data to inform warfighting concepts, science and technology research, and Army experimentation.
How Will the Findings Support Army Modernization?
The Fort Sill-based Fires Future Capability Directorate, a subordinate unit of U.S. Army Futures and Concepts Command, defines material requirements and performs experimentation. The excursion also supports the FFCD’s modernization efforts for integrated offensive and defensive fires. FE 26-3 generated data to help design, organize and equip future forces while informing science and technology research funding priorities.
