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	Director, Operational Test & Evaluation
	FY98 Annual Report

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION & CONTRIBUTION TO JOINT VISION 2010

The Follow-On To TOW (FOTT) missile system (canceled earlier this year), comprised of the encased FOTT missile and associated platform integration appliqué kits, was intended to provide improved long-range, lethal, anti-tank capability for systems currently equipped with the Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) missile. Appliqué kits, including hardware and software, were planned for the following platforms-improved TOW Acquisition System (ITAS), Improved Bradley Acquisition System (IBAS) and Bradley (A2 and A2 Operation Desert Storm versions). The missile concept included a wooden round modular design with extended shelf-life capability. Future growth was to have been accommodated by a modular design and by transition of applicable technologies from on-going tech base programs.

FOTT was to have contributed to Joint Vision 2010 as a precision engagement system, enhancing the Army's dominant maneuver capabilities in the ground battle.

The FOTT System was the next generation missile system for approximately 5,000+ existing U.S. Army Tube-Launched Optically Tracked Wire-Guided (TOW) platforms. No DT/OT of a FOTT configured system was ever performed. However, two competing contractors conducted government supported testing to help mitigate the risk of starting the program at Milestone II. Due to budget constraints, the Army canceled the FOTT program in 1998.

Operational, live-fire, and developmental test strategies were completed and incorporated into a draft TEMP supporting Milestone II and subsequent contract selection. IOT&E was planned for FY05. The TEMP was submitted for OSD review and approval in 1998.

Operational assessment of the FOTT system was never conducted.

DOT&E raised two areas of concern with the draft TEMP: (1) were sufficient test resources allocated to demonstrate missile reliability; and (2) had the right balance been struck between an ambitious modeling and simulation plan and live testing? Neither issue was resolved at the time of the program's cancellation.

An Army Analysis of Alternatives performed in the spring of 1998 did not fully support the system requirements developed by the user and developer. Likewise, an OSD analysis conducted by the Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation during that same timeframe, questioned the need to rapidly replace the existing TOW inventory-one of the key motivations for pursuing a faster paced, higher risk developmental strategy for FOTT. Neither concern had been adequately addressed at the time of FOTT's cancellation.