The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) will be the world's first large-scale dedicated VLBI facility. It is planned as a multipurpose instrument, supporting continuum, spectroscopic, astrometric/geodetic, multi-frequency, bandwidth synthesis, polarization, and pulsar measurements – with a variety of bandwidths, sampling rates, quantization schemes, and multi-band modes. The Array will consist of ten new 25-m precision antennas, in an optimized geographical configuration. Extremely low-noise receivers will support observations with dual polarization in nine frequency bands from 330 MHz to 43 GHz, including almost all conventional VLBI bands. A wideband, high-density recording system will allow unattended operation at a sustained data rate of 128 Mbit/s for 24 hours, and peak rates up to 512 Mbit/s. The VLBA correlator, planned as a 20-station system to support processing of all observations involving the Array, will be by far the largest ever built for VLBI. The Array will be operated remotely, from a new operations and data-reduction center to be built in Socorro, NM.