Zitat:Future Combat System Approved for First Spin Out
US Army
Wed, 21 Jun 2006, 01:23

The Department of Defense approved June 6 the Army’s acquisition approach for the first of the Future Combat System (FCS) Brigade Combat Team (BCT) technologies that will be “spun out” to troops to begin testing and evaluation as early as 2008. ...

Zitat:July 7, 2006
Internal review finds cost of Army future combat program soaring

By Megan Scully, CongressDaily
Total cost estimates for the Army's Future Combat Systems have nearly doubled in the last three years, soaring from $175 billion to $300 billion to develop, build and operate the massive modernization program, according to a report sent to Capitol Hill last week. ...

Zitat:Report: Army future combat program may be unaffordable

By Megan Scully, CongressDaily
A new government report on the Army's massive Future Combat Systems questions whether the cash-strapped service can afford to buy the program, delivering the latest in a series of blows to the backbone of the Army's transformation plans. ...

Zitat:Boeing Future Combat Systems gets go-ahead on weapons prototypes

By Tony Capaccio

Bloomberg News

Boeing's Future Combat Systems passed its most important milestone this year and can move into its next phase of development in which early prototypes are designed and tested, U.S. Army officials said today. ...

Zitat:Futures

Man, I wish Noah were around to comment on this one, from Inside the Army:

The Future Combat System successfully cleared its initial preliminary design review, marking the end of the program's "PowerPoint" phase and the beginning of more tangible progress, program officials said last week.
...
UPDATE, 5:06 EST (from Axe): Since Noah's not around, I'll say it: FCS is too expensive, too ambitious, technologically and operationally unsound and destined for the kinds of cuts and stretches that turn even useful programs into multi-billion-dollar embarassments. Only here we're talking a trillion dollars, if the Army FCS-izes the entire force.

The CBO is all over this one (PDF!), as I reported earlier:

In 2011, planned FCS costs would account for about 6 percent of the Army's $21 billion procurement budget, CBO estimates; by 2015, that share could rise to almost half and remain at or above 40 percent through 2025. (For purposes of comparison, in the mid-1980s, at the height of the Reagan defense buildup, the Army dedicated at most 20 percent of its procurement funds to buy combat vehicles.)

Kill FCS now!

Zitat:Army "Future": Fewer Drones

The other day, Inside Defense broke the news that the Army was shaving billions off of its massive modernization program, Future Combat Systems. Now, we're starting to get some details. Turns out the drones are the ones getting the axe. ...

Zitat: TRADOC Chief Says Army Reconsidering Ugvs For FCS
By Michael Bruno/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
01/16/2007 09:38:59 AM

The U.S. Army is reconsidering planned unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) under its massive, embattled Future Combat Systems (FCS) program after it recently cut the types of unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs), according to Gen. William Wallace, head of the Army Training and Doctrine Command. ...

Zitat:FCS Budget Woes Continue

Despite a full-bore public relations campaign to press lawmakers into supporting the Army’s Future Combat System program, it looks like Congress wasn’t buying the service’s pitch.
According to a report by Tony Capaccio with Bloomberg News, House authorizers slashed the FCS budget 23 percent, cutting nearly $870 million from the Army’s fiscal 2008 request. ...

leopard 2 schrieb:Was haltet ihr davon?

Zitat:Fact Sheet on the Army’s Future Combat Systems

Future Combat Systems (FCS)

The Future Combat Systems (FCS) is a family of systems currently being developed to include manned vehicles, unmanned aerial and ground vehicles, unattended sensors, new munitions, launchers and a network for communication and data-sharing between all FCS elements. This “system-of-systems” is the centerpiece of the Army’s attempt to transform itself into what it describes as a lighter, more agile and more capable force.

FCS vehicles will be incorporated into the Army’s brigade-sized modular force structure, and are expected to replace such current systems as the M-1 Abrams tank and the M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle.