Cross Functional Team (CFT) Advanced Development & Prototyping

The Cross Functional Team (CFT) Advanced Development & Prototyping, is a part of the Army's Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) budget activity. The program aims to facilitate rapid modernization of the force through the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) initiative. This initiative encourages multi-component experimentation to refine and validate the Joint Warfighting Concept (JWC). The program involves identifying best of breed capabilities developed among DoD prototyping programs and executing approved projects through large-scale experiments to enable Joint Staff analysis, assist in requirements determination, and inform budget decisions affecting changes throughout the Department.

The specific objectives of this program include enabling Joint All Domain Operations concepts applicable across multiple Combatant Commands (CCMD) to address priority scenarios outlined by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. The program aims to accelerate joint warfighting capabilities by quickly demonstrating and assessing innovative technologies, resulting in follow-on efforts for accelerated transition of technologies to CCMD required operations. The program also focuses on maturing technologies to TRL7+ prototypes for Soldier evaluations in various areas such as layered solutions for logistics operations, resupply, repair, base defense, advanced sensing capabilities, and network distribution. Additionally, it includes activities related to communications and architectures systems design, hardware procurement, prototyping, software maturation, systems integration, modeling and simulation support, and more.