Capability Program Executive Mission Autonomy (CPE Mission Autonomy)
CPE Mission Autonomy is the Army’s autonomy integrator. It is deliberately not a platform buyer: it does not build or acquire drones and robots, it assembles them into “packages of capability” that a commander can task. It is the newest CPE, created in 2026, and it moved from PAE_Maneuver_Air to the layered protection portfolio in May 2026.
| Type | Capability Program Executive (CPE) |
| Headquarters | Fort_Belvoir, VA, with staff drawn from Detroit_Arsenal, Picatinny_Arsenal, and Aberdeen_Proving_Ground |
| Capability Program Executive | Anthony_Gibbs (BG) |
| Subordinate to | PAE Layered Protection and Integration (Fort_Leonard_Wood, MO) as of May 2026; previously PAE_Maneuver_Air. ASAALT for acquisition authority |
| Established | 2026, under the November 2025 acquisition reform |
Mission
Interconnect the Army’s unmanned and autonomous systems, from small drones to ground robots, into integrated capability packages. The office’s stated approach is systems-of-systems: build a reference architecture with open APIs that allows new platforms, payloads, and enabling technologies to be onboarded in weeks rather than months, and explicitly avoid proprietary interfaces.
Initial focus areas are combat engineering (terrain shaping and obstacle emplacement), fires (leveraging mature autonomy), and logistics (resupply and casualty evacuation in contested environments).
No Title 10 section establishes this office by name. Army capability program executives are designated by the Army Acquisition Executive, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology at 10 U.S.C. § 7016(b)(5)(A), acting under the Secretary of the Army’s authority to organize the Department of the Army at 10 U.S.C. § 7013(b)(2), and the portfolio acquisition executive role such an office performs is defined at 10 U.S.C. § 1732, added by Pub. L. 119-60 in December 2025, as explained at Title_10_Structure.
Subordinate Organizations
Three project manager teams, each aligned to a partner division so the office develops capability against a real formation rather than a document:
- PM_Mission_Autonomy_All_Arms_Maneuver — aligned with the 1st_Cavalry_Division
- PM_Mission_Autonomy_Fires_C2_and_Counter-C2 — aligned with the 4th_Infantry_Division
- PM_Mission_Autonomy_Agile_Sustainment_and_Protection — aligned with the 25th_Infantry_Division
The division-alignment model is the same one NGC2 uses at CPE_C2_Information_Network, and it is the clearest signal of how the Army now intends to develop software-defined capability.
Program Element families
Autonomy money is scattered across other portfolios’ program elements, which is exactly the problem this office exists to solve. The relevant families:
- Ground robotics: 0604017A Robotics Development, 0605053A Ground Robotics, 0604641A Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle
- Launched effects: 0602345A, 0603345A, 0609345A, 0609346A UAS Launched Effects Agile Development
- Small UAS: 0604101A and 0605205A Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
- Autonomy and AI enablers: 0601601A, 0602180A, 0603040A Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
See Program Elements and Budget Activities.
Why it matters
Read the mandate literally: it integrates, it does not procure platforms. A drone manufacturer’s buyer is still CPE_Aviation PM UAS, CPE_Ground, or CPE_Combat_Logistics. A vendor of autonomy software, sensor fusion, behaviors, or an autonomy stack has its buyer here. Getting this wrong is the most common mistake in the Army autonomy market.
The reference architecture is the gate. Open APIs, no proprietary interfaces, onboarding measured in weeks. If a product cannot be integrated against a government-owned interface, this office is not a customer.
Launched effects, counter-UAS, and EW are supporting efforts, not owned missions. They belong to CPE_Aviation, CPE_Defensive_Fires, and CPE_Intelligence_Spectrum_Warfare respectively; this office enables them.
The Army’s drone marketplace is adjacent. The 2026 commercial solutions opening for a UAS marketplace and the approved-platform dynamic set the terms on which platforms can even be considered. Track those separately from this office’s autonomy work.
The May 2026 move is a signal. Shifting from PAE_Maneuver_Air to layered protection reflects a judgement that autonomy is a cross-cutting function rather than an aviation subdiscipline. Expect further boundary movement.
See Also
- PAE_Layered_Protection_CBRN — current parent portfolio
- PAE_Maneuver_Air — former parent
- CPE_Aviation, CPE_Ground, CPE_Combat_Logistics — the platform buyers this office integrates
- CPE_Defensive_Fires, CPE_Intelligence_Spectrum_Warfare — supporting-effort relationships
- Artificial_Intelligence, Counter_UAS, Multi_Domain_Operations, Kill_Chain
- ASAALT, T2COM, DIU
- Program Elements, Defense_Acquisition_System