The U.S. ArmyDEVCOM Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC), (formerly known as the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC)) is a mainly a civilian organization that provides research, development, and engineering services for the Army's aviation and missile platforms. DEVCOM AvMC is headquartered at Redstone Arsenal in Madison County, Alabama.
The DEVCOM Aviation and Missile Center is headquartered at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Other laboratories are located at Joint Base Langley-Eustis and Hampton, Virginia, as well as Moffett Field in California, where Army and NASA aviation facilities (such as instrumented test ranges and wind tunnels) are used. Personnel devoted to aviation sustainment and engineering are located in Corpus Christi, Texas, and serve as liaison engineers for global operations.
DEVCOM AvMC has over 1.9 million square feet of laboratory space that is used for: sensors and electronics, propulsion systems, aerodynamic structures, modeling and simulation, life cycle software development, and technical testing. DEVCOM AvMC employs approximately 12,000 civilian, military, and contractor personnel.
History
DEVCOM AvMC traces its origins back to October 1948, when the Army's chief of ordnance designated Redstone Arsenal as the center for research and development in the field of rockets. A year later, the secretary of the Army approved the transfer of the Ordnance Research and Development Division sub-office (Rocket) from Fort Bliss, Texas, to the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. Among those transferred were Dr. Wernher von Braun and his team of German scientists and technicians who had come to the United States after World War II. The Von Braun team is most noted for its pioneering efforts in helping the Army at Redstone lay the foundation for U.S. space exploration.
With the transfer of the Von Braun team to NASA in 1960, research and development activities by the Army at Redstone turned to incorporating space-age technology into weapons for the soldier in the field.
2020s
Effective 19 January 2020, DEVCOM AvMC's directorates were reorganized:
Technology Development Directorate (TDD): merged the Aviation Development Directorate with the Weapons Development and Integration Directorate.
Systems Readiness Directorate (SRD): the Aviation Engineering Directorate and elements of the Engineering Directorate combined to form SRD.
Software, Simulation, Systems Engineering and Integration (S3I) Directorate: was formerly the Systems Simulation, Software and Integration (S3I) Directorate. DEVCOM AvMC's prototype integration facility, along with certain elements under ED, were shifted to S3I.
Lineage
1962 – The U.S. Army Missile Command (MICOM) and the Directorate of Research and Development are activated.
1964 – U.S. Army Materiel Command assigned the Army Aviation Materiel Command its first aviation and surface research and development center in Fort Eustis, Virginia, to be known as the U.S. Army Aviation Materiel Laboratories. Later that year, the new U.S. Army Aeronautical Research Laboratory at NASA's Ames Research Center opened at Moffett Field, California. Both remain in operation today, under DEVCOM Aviation and Missile Center.
1965 – Redesignated the Research and Development Directorate.
1968 – Redesignated the Research and Engineering (R&E) Directorate.
1971 – Redesignated the Directorate for Research, Development, Engineering, and Missile Systems Laboratory (RDE&MSL).
1972 – RDE&MSL redesignated the Army Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Laboratory (MRDEL).
1977 – With the establishment of the U.S. Army Missile Research and Development Command (MIRADCOM), the Technology Laboratory and the Engineering Laboratory were activated.
1979 – MRDEL reorganized as the Army Missile Laboratory (AML), in the shift from the dual to merged command structure of the reinstituted MICOM. Also effective this date, the Engineering Laboratory was realigned and established as the Engineering Directorate.
1980 – Engineering Directorate functions were placed under AML.
1985 – Formation of the Research, Development and Engineering Centers (RDECs), in compliance with AMC directions to establish research, development, and engineering (RD&E) centers.
↑Tolson, Amy (10 December 2019). "CCDC commanding general pays first visit to Aviation, Missile Center". www.army.mil. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2025. The CCDC Aviation & Missile Center, formerly known as the Aviation & Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), is part of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, which conducts responsive research, development(,) and life cycle engineering to deliver the aviation and missile capabilities the Army depends on to ensure victory on the battlefield today and tomorrow. Through collaboration across the command's core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development(,) and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win our nation's wars and come home safely. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.
12"CCDC Aviation & Missile Center > About us > Locations & facilities". www.avmc.army.mil. Archived from the original on 13 October 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-05. Headquartered at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, CCDC AvMC has over 1.9 million square feet of laboratory space devoted to innovative work on sensors and electronics, propulsion systems, aerodynamic structures, modeling and simulation, life cycle software development, and technical testing. (___enter___); We have laboratories at Joint Base Langley-Eustis and Hampton, Virginia, and Moffett Field, California, where Army and NASA aviation facilities, such as instrumented test ranges and wind tunnels, are used to support our role as lead service for rotorcraft science and technology. Our responsibility for aircraft extends to airworthiness release authority for issuing the technical document that provides instructions and limitations for safe flight of an aircraft system, subsystem, or allied equipment. Our personnel devoted to aviation sustainment and engineering are located in Corpus Christi, Texas, and serve as liaison engineers around the globe. In addition to these assets, AvMC and our customers benefit from resources available at Redstone, including test ranges and facilities managed by the Redstone Test Center, the FBI's Hazardous Devices School(,) and the Redstone Army Airfield.
↑Tolson, Amy (15 January 2020). "Modernization, readiness, focus of CCDC Aviation, Missile Center reorganization". www.army.mil. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2025. Effective Jan. 19, the new AvMC structure will be: (___enter___); -- Technology Development Directorate: formed by merging the Aviation Development Directorate and Weapons Development and Integration Directorate. ... (___enter___); -- Systems Readiness Directorate: the Aviation Engineering Directorate and elements of the Engineering Directorate will combine to create SRD. ... (___enter___); -- Software, Simulation, Systems Engineering and Integration Directorate: formerly known as the Systems Simulation, Software and Integration Directorate, S3I will largely remain as is. The prototype integration facility, along with some elements that previously fell under ED, will realign under the directorate. ...
U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command
