Army Missile Command

The United States Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) is a research and development and product management command of the United States Army. It develops, acquires, fields and sustains aviation, missile and unmanned aerial vehicles. AMCOM is primarily responsible for lifecycle management of Army missile, helicopter, unmanned ground vehicle and unmanned aerial vehicle weapon systems.

The central part of AMCOM's mission involves acquisition and sustainment support for aviation systems, missile systems, and Test, Measurement, and Diagnostic Equipment (TMDE) throughout their product life cycle, from initial concept to safe disposal. The command is headquartered at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, has a 2019 "budget of more $3.7 billion, and a global workforce of more than 15,000 military and civilian employees". Its other installations include Corpus Christi Army Depot; Letterkenny Army Depot, and the Army Aviation Center at Fort Novosel.

AMCOM works closely with the U.S. Army CCDC Aviation & Missile Center (AvMC)Amy Tolson, Aviation & Missile Center Public Affairs (10 December 2019) CCDC commanding general pays first visit to Aviation, Missile Center
(AvMC), which operates simulation facilities to evaluate missile components, such as seekers, in a variety of flights and countermeasures environments. AMCOM also has access to several wind tunnels to test full-size helicopters, a vertical motion simulator for flight control evaluation and a crash-testing tower used to improve safety.

Chronology

The U.S. Army Missile Command (MICOM) was formally established on 23 May 1962 at Redstone Arsenal to manage the army's missile systems.

*October 1948: The Chief of Ordnance designated Redstone Arsenal as the center for ordnance research and development in the field of rockets.
*1 June 1949: The Chief of Ordnance officially activated the arsenal, becoming the site of the Ordnance Rocket Center.
*28 October 1949: The Secretary of the Army approved the transfer of the Ordnance Research and Development Division Sub-Office (Rocket) at Fort Bliss, Texas, to the Redstone Arsenal as the Ordnance Guided Missile Center.
*1 February 1956: The U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) established at Redstone Arsenal.
*March, 1958: Organizations placed under the new Army Ordnance Missile Command (AOMC) included the ABMA, Redstone Arsenal, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, White Sands Proving Grounds and the Army Rocket and Guided Missile Agency (ARGMA).
*July–October 1958: The ABMA's scientific and engineering staff, including Wernher von Braun and the Saturn I team at Redstone Arsenal, were transferred to the newly created NASA Marshall Space Flight Center at the southern half of Redstone Arsenal. Nearly the entirety of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were transferred to NASA, completely crushing any hope of an independent Army space program.
*1958: The Pershing Project Manager's Office was created.
*23 May 1962: U.S. Army Missile Command (MICOM) was officially established, being fully staffed and operational on 1 August 1962.
*28 February 1964: The U.S. Army Aviation and Surface Material Command was redesignated as the U.S. Army Aviation Materiel Command (AVCOM).
*23 September 1968: AVCOM was redesignated the U.S. Army Aviation Systems Command (AVSCOM).
*1 July 1977: AVSCOM was discontinued, and its readiness mission was combined with that of the U.S. Army Troop Support Command (TROSCOM) to form the U.S. Army Troop Support and Aviation Materiel Readiness Command (TSARCOM). AVSCOM's aviation research and development mission assigned to the newly established U.S. Army Aviation Research and Development Command (AVRADCOM).
*1 March 1984: AVSCOM was reestablished and all the missions and activities of AVRADCOM and aviation related missions and activities of the Troop Support and Aviation Materiel Readiness Command (TSARCOM) were transferred to AVSCOM.
*1 October 1992: The U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command (ATCOM) was established, consolidating the existing missions of AVSCOM and TROSCOM, and having their missions and organizations transferred to other commands.
*8 September 1995: Congress approved the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission list, which disestablished ATCOM and transferred its mission and organizations to Redstone Arsenal, merging with the Army Missile Command to subsequently form AMCOM.
*17 July 1997: The Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) was provisionally established.
*1 October 1997: AMCOM was formally established at Redstone Arsenal with the merger of the U.S. Army Missile Command (MICOM) at Redstone Arsenal and the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command (ATCOM) at St. Louis, Missouri

Components

AMCOM's TMDE Activity provides worldwide command and control over a broad metrology and calibration program. AMCOM is also the leader in Foreign Military Sales, accounting for over 50 percent of total Army sales to Allied forces and friendly foreign nations. AMCOM's main organizations are organized into "centers":
:*Acquisition Center – responsible for contracting support.
:*AMCOM Logistics Center (ALC) – responsible for logistics support.

U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command is a LCMC. Thus it has an associated contracting center. This LCMC Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command was formerly Aviation and Missile Command (1997). This LCMC "purchases about $1 billion worth of aircraft and missile parts each year."U.S. Army (16 December 2019) AMCOM improves readiness in 2019, looks to future
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List of commanding generals

*Major General John Bruce Medaris, 1958
*Major General James R. Myles
*Major General James E. Rogers, 10 September 2010
*Major General Lynn A. Collyar, 1 June 2012
*Major General James M. Richardson, 12 June 2014
*Major General Douglas Gabram, 18 February 2016
*William Marriott, 14 February 2019 (acting)
*Major General K. Todd Royar, 10 June 2019
*Major General Thomas W. O'Connor Jr., 12 August 2022
*Major General Lori L. Robinson, 10 July 2024

See also

*Anti-aircraft warfare
* Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)

References

External links

Official site

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Aviation and Missile Command
Aviation and Missile Command
United States defense procurement