United States Army Research Laboratory
The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory is the sole foundational research laboratory for the United States Army. It is a component unit of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. DEVCOM ARL conducts intramural and extramural research guided by 11 Army competencies: Biological and Biotechnology Sciences; Humans in Complex Systems; Photonics, Electronics, and Quantum Sciences; Electromagnetic Spectrum Sciences; Mechanical Sciences; Sciences of Extreme Materials; Energy Sciences; Military Information Sciences; Terminal Effects; Network, Cyber, and Computational Sciences; and Weapons Sciences.
The laboratory was established in 1992 to unify the activities of the seven corporate laboratories of the U.S. Army Laboratory Command as well as consolidate other Army research elements to form a centralized laboratory. The seven corporate laboratories that merged were the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory, the Ballistic Research Laboratory, the Electronics Technology and Devices Laboratory, the Harry Diamond Laboratories, the Human Engineering Laboratory, the Materials Technology Laboratory, and the Vulnerability Assessment Laboratory. In 1998, the Army Research Office was also incorporated into the organization.
Locations
Headquartered at the Adelphi Laboratory Center in Adelphi, Maryland, DEVCOM ARL operates laboratories and experimental facilities in several locations around the United States: Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland; Blossom Point Research Facility, Maryland; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico; Graces Quarters, Maryland; NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio; and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.DEVCOM ARL also has the following five regional sites to facilitate partnerships with universities and industry in the surrounding area: ARL West in Playa Vista, California; ARL Central in Chicago, Illinois; ARL South in Austin, Texas; ARL Mid-Atlantic in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland; and ARL Northeast in Burlington, Massachusetts.
History
Background (1962–1985)
The formation of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory was a product of a decades-long endeavor to address a critical issue facing the Army's independent research laboratories. Due to a surge of technological advancements set off by World War I and World War II, the early 20th century introduced major developments in the study and practice of warfare. The rapid growth and diversification of military science and technology precipitated the creation of numerous research facilities by the U.S. Army to ensure that the country remained competitive on the international stage, especially as Cold War tensions reached new heights. The high demand for greater and more sophisticated military capabilities led to a proliferation of Army laboratories that not only advanced competing military interests but also operated in an independent fashion with minimal supervisory control or coordination from U.S. Army headquarters. By the early 1960s, the Army recognized a significant flaw in this approach to pursuing in-house research and development. Competition for government funding led to fierce rivalries between the research facilities that ultimately eroded communication between the Army laboratories. Research installations began to prioritize the survival and longevity of their own operations over the overarching Army goals and engaged in turf disputes to protect their own interests. As a result, the laboratories often did not share their findings or learn about the projects being performed at other facilities, which led to duplicated research and resource waste. Furthermore, the lack of central guidance produced research that distinguished the laboratories from each other but did not fulfill the most urgent or relevant needs of the Army.In the ensuing decades, the U.S. Army conducted various restructuring efforts to resolve this issue. The reorganization of the Army in 1962 discontinued the Technical Services and established the U.S. Army Materiel Command to manage the Army's procurement and development functions for weapons and munitions. Research facilities within both the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps and the U.S. Army Signal Corps, two major agencies of the Technical Services, were consolidated under AMC. This decision united the Army's combat materials research and the Army's electronic materials research under a single command. Despite this change, the realigned research facilities continued to operate in an independent manner, and the problems remained unresolved. Later in the decade, AMC organized the former Ordnance Corps facilities into one group and the former Signal Corps facilities into a different group to foster closer working relationships within each group. While the former Ordnance Corps facilities became known as AMC laboratories and reported directly to AMC headquarters, the former Signal Corps facilities reported to a major subordinate command in AMC called the Electronics Command. Although AMC had hoped that this arrangement would encourage research sharing and foster cooperation, the lack of progress on this issue prompted the U.S. Army to change its approach.
In December 1973, Secretary of the Army Howard Callaway established the Army Materiel Acquisition Review Committee, an ad hoc group consisting primarily of civilians from outside the government, to analyze the Army's materiel acquisition process. Upon review of AMC's management of its science and technology elements, AMARC highlighted how the wide spectrum of research, development, and commodity responsibilities shouldered by the research facilities contributed to a lack of responsiveness in addressing the Army's modern, mission-oriented needs. The advisory committee recommended separating the development of communications and automatic data processing from the development of electronic warfare capabilities. Following the guidance given by AMARC, AMC redesignated itself as the Material Development and Readiness Command in January 1976 to reflect the changes in the organization's acquisition and readiness practices.
In January 1978, the U.S. Army discontinued ECOM and formally activated three major subordinate commands under DARCOM: the Communications and Electronics Materiel Readiness Command, the Communications Research and Development Command, and the Electronics Research and Development Command. As the sole major subordinate command responsible for the Army's combat electronics materiel, ERADCOM handled the development of all noncommunications and nonautomatic data-processing electronics materiel for the Army. Elements that constituted ERADCOM included the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory, the Electronics Technology and Devices Laboratory, the Electronic Warfare Laboratory, and the Harry Diamond Laboratories. In 1981, duplication of effort between CERCOM and CORADCOM led DARCOM to combine the two major subordinate commands to create the Communications-Electronics Command. Not long after DARCOM carried out its reorganization, however, the Army launched another review that scrutinized its structure, indicating that the changes failed to resolve the existing issues. DARCOM later changed its name back to AMC in August 1984.
In 1984, the U.S. Army initiated a different strategy to address the lack of unity among the laboratories. General Richard H. Thompson, the new Commanding General of AMC, proposed an initiative to consolidate and centralize the management of all the AMC laboratories under a single major subordinate command. This concept of a Laboratory Command was quickly adopted by the Army despite receiving unfavorable reviews that cited the likelihood of increased bureaucratic layering and overhead expenses. In July 1985, AMC officially activated the U.S. Army Laboratory Command to manage seven Army laboratories and an eighth research entity known as the Army Research Office. The seven laboratories assigned to LABCOM were the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory, the Ballistic Research Laboratory, the Electronics Technology and Devices Laboratory, the Harry Diamond Laboratories, the Human Engineering Laboratory, the Materiel and Mechanics Research Center, and the Office of Missile Electronic Warfare.
LABCOM's primary mission was to facilitate the transition of technologies from basic research to fielded application while also finding ways to improve their integration into mission areas across the Army. Once LABCOM was established, the term “laboratories” became reserved exclusively for the research facilities under LABCOM. The research facilities that did not transfer to LABCOM became known as Research, Development, and Engineering Centers. This naming distinction highlighted a major shift in the roles that both groups adopted. As part of the change, the laboratories took charge of AMC's basic research, while the RDECs focused primarily on engineering development. The laboratories, which reported directly to LABCOM instead of AMC headquarters, were expected to work together to support the technological growth of the Army. As part of their duties, significant emphasis was placed on the pursuit of technology transfers and the sharing of information so that they could both exploit the advancements made by others and avoid duplication of research. ARO, the eighth element placed in LABCOM, retained its original functions of managing grants and contracts with individual scientists, academia, and nonprofit entities to promote basic research relevant to the U.S. Army. Despite the significant changes made to the structure of the command, none of the dispersed research facilities were physically relocated for the formation of LABCOM. Although centralized oversight addressed some of the management problems that the Army sought to resolve, the geographic separation between the laboratories considerably hindered LABCOM's research synergy. To the Army's dismay, competition among the laboratories and duplicated research persisted.