United States Army Acquisition Corps

The **United States Army Acquisition Corps** (AAC) is the officer / NCO corps of the United States Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW), a branch which includes civilians, officers, and NCOs. The Acquisition Corps is composed of army officers who serve in acquisition, a specialized form of product development, fielding, and support and Noncommissioned Officers who specialize in Contracting, Level I Program Management and Purchasing. These officers begin their careers in the other branches of the army for eight years, after which they may elect the Acquisition branch as their career as assistant program managers (APMs), program managers (PMs), and program executive officers (PEOs). (A PEO can be civilian.) The Noncommissioned Officers (NCOs) are reclassified in the Army Acquisition NCO Corps after serving 7-10 years in their respective enlisted career management fields, and serve primarily in the Army Acquisition Career Management Field - 51 and (MOS) 51C. 4% percentage of the Army Acquisition Officers serve among the 40,000 members of the army acquisition workforce, 6% in MOS 51C - Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Contracting Noncommissioned Officer (Active, Reserve and National Guards), and the remainder 90% percentage consist largely of Department of the Army civilians.

The director of the Army Acquisition Corps, currently a lieutenant general, also serves as principal military deputy (PMILDEP) to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology or ASA(ALT). The PMILDEP is also director of combat systems for Army Futures Command (AFC), by Army Directive 2018-15. The Office of ASA(ALT) has a direct reporting unit (DRU) which is denoted the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC). An office within USAASC, DACM ensures the professional development of the Acquisition Workforce as well as the Officers / NCOs corps itself, including the recruitment of suitable Captains, Majors, Staff Sergeants and Sergeant First Class into the pipeline of courses at the US Army Acquisition Corps School of Acquisition Excellence, Huntsville, AL and Defense Acquisition University (DAU). DAU certifies the 150,000-member Defense Acquisition Workforce, including the Army's Acquisition workforce of 40,000 civilians, officers, and NCOs (MOS 51C).

## History

The Acquisition Corps was instituted in 1989 by Chief of Staff Carl Vuono. Vuono's goal was to professionalize the Acquisition workforce. In 2006 the Army Acquisition NCO Corps was approved by the Department of the Army and instituted by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology)/Army Acquisition Executive by the Honorable Claude M. Bolton Jr.

During the post-9/11 period, the US Army was preoccupied with counter-insurgencies, leaving its competitors free to develop new weapon systems. In order to address this need for modernization, the Army Futures Command (AFC) was instituted in 2018. AFC's approach to modernization is to clarify the engineering of a candidate system before it becomes a Program of Record in the Acquisition process. "Our new approach is really to prototype as much as we can to help us identify requirements, so our reach doesn't exceed our grasp. ... A good example is Future Vertical Lift: The prototyping has been exceptional." —Secretary of the Army Mark Esper

1. ↑ Dan Lamothe *Washington Post* (2018-07-12) Army to unveil details about new Futures Command in biggest reorganization in 45 years
2. ↑ Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (24 January 2019) Bell V-280 Flies 322 MPH: Army Secretary Praises Program