2018 to 24,000 in 25 states and 15 countries in 2019. Futures Command was slated to be the Army's fourth Army command (ACOM). AFC joined the other Army commands FORSCOM, Army Materiel Command (AMC), and TRADOC as four-star commands. Austin, Texas became the station for the headquarters of Futures Command. Initial operating capability is slated for 2018. Although the Army has enjoyed overmatch for the past seventy years, more rapid modernization for conflict with near-peers is the reason for AFC, which will be focused on achieving clear overmatch in six areas — long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift platforms, a mobile & expeditionary Army network, air & missile defense capabilities, and soldier lethality (i.e. artillery, armor, aviation, signal, air defense artillery, and infantry respectively see: Futures). In a reform-oriented break with Army custom, leaders of AFC headquarters were to locate in a downtown property of the University of Texas System, while project-driven soldiers and Army civilians were to co-locate with entrepreneurs/innovators in tech hubs, in the vision of Under Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy. The official activation ceremony of AFC was on 24 August 2018, in Austin, Texas; in a press conference on that day featuring Army Chief of Staff Milley, Secretary Esper, Mayor Adler, and AFC commander Murray, Chief Milley noted that AFC was to actively reach out into the community in order to learn, and that Senator John McCain's frank criticism of the acquisition process was instrumental for modernization reform at Futures command. In fact, AFC soldiers were to blend into Austin by not wearing their uniforms [to work side by side with civilians in the tech hubs], Milley noted in the 24 August 2018 press conference. Secretary Esper said he expected failures during the process of learning how to reform the acquisition and modernization process. The organizational design of AFC was informed by the cancellation of the Army's Future Combat Systems project. Under Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy reviewed the reasons for that cancellation. Thus "unity of command and purpose" was a criterion for the design by unifying previous modernization efforts in a single command; the sub-goals would be met in do-able chunks. The ratio of uniformed personnel to Army civilian employees is expected to be a talent-based, task-based issue for the AFC commander.The expectation is that these reforms will enable cultural change across the entire Army, as a part