U.S. Army Scouting Large Cities For New 500-Person Command HQ Office

Amazon is not the only one conducting a search for a new urban headquarters.

The U.S. Army is expected to announce the location of a new home for its Futures Command, a division that focuses on emerging technology in national defense, CBS Denver reports. This will be the first time the U.S. Army places a major headquarters in an urban area.

The Futures Command will be the new, fourth branch of the Army, and will house about 500 employees and be led by a four-star general, an Army spokesperson told CBS Denver. The Army's spokesperson said that in order to improve on the drawn-out conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military needs to be better prepared with research into emerging tactics — so it is seeking a location with elite academic and industry talent pipelines.

Initially, the Army considered 15 cities — Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Raleigh, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. The five largest cities in the country by population, as well as seven of the top 10, are on that list. Minneapolis is the smallest, ranking No. 47 in population with 382,587 residents.

A shorter list of finalists has reportedly been selected for in-depth visits, and Raleigh joins Austin and Boston as the three that have already been visited. An undisclosed number of other cities are still on the schedule.

Previously, Army command centers have been the exclusive domain of rural or exurban areas to maximize the amount of space it could acquire and minimize the impact of training exercises on nearby civilians, CBS reports. But with the entire world becoming increasingly digitized, warfare is following suit and tech talent is now clustered in mostly urban areas.