Military

DATE= 2/28/02

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=U-S CRUSADER / DEFENSE

NUMBER=5-51178

BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA

DATELINE=PENTAGON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The U-S Army is trying to transform itself into a lighter, more mobile fighting force for the 21st century. Nonetheless, it is sticking firm to its plans for a new high-tech but heavyweight field artillery piece called the 'Crusader' --- a piece of military equipment that has become a focal point of criticism. V-O-A Pentagon Correspondent Alex Belida reports.

TEXT: In a proposed defense budget of some 379-billion dollars, 475-million doesn't seem like much to get upset about.

But the Defense Department's request for that amount for next year to pay for the continuing development of the 'Crusader' mobile howitzer has critics questioning just how transformational the Army wants to be.

That is because they say the Crusader is neither light nor rapid nor likely to find much use in the kinds of unconventional conflicts that strategists expect to be the norm for U-S forces in the future.

Even Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld concedes it has become a big target for critics.

///OPT RUMSFELD ACTUALITY////

With respect to the Crusader, it's been a question mark, there's no question about that. They [critics] felt that it was too heavy and not as mobile as it might be.

///END OPT ACTUALITY///

But Mr. Rumsfeld, speaking recently to U-S National Public Radio, says transformation is about more than killing one weapons system.

///RUMSFELD ACTUALITY///

I bet you anything if we canceled the Crusader, everyone would cheer and say 'oh, that's transformational.' Of course transformation is about much more than a single weapon system.

///END ACTUALITY///

[Insert sound of 'Crusader' test firing shells]

The Army has already spent some one-point-seven billion dollars developing Crusader, a project dating back to 1994. Overall it plans to invest about 11-billion dollars to field some 500 Crusader systems -- the cannons and their resupply vehicles.

The Army says it badly needs the Crusader. Colonel Russell Hrdy (CQ, pron HER-DEE) says it is intended to replace another 155-millimeter self-propelled artillery piece that is 40-years-old.

///HRDY ACTUALITY///

Our current cannon, the Paladin, is a 40-year-old system that has undergone at least six upgrades in the last four years and it's badly outgunned in rate of fire and in range by at least eight other cannons in the world. The Crusader program on the other hand is a revolutionary weapon. The cannon and the resupply vehicles are fully automated, they're loaded with sensors and sophisticated robotic arms that allow the system to achieve highly-precise and unprecedented rates of fire.

///END ACTUALITY///

[insert sound of Crusader firing]

Colonel Hrdy is the Army's project manager for Crusader. He likens its performance to that of a modern fighter aircraft. In fact, he says it is really as much a precision-strike weapon as the warplanes dropping munitions on suspected terrorist targets in Afghanistan.

But as it was originally conceived, the Crusader, at 60 tons, was too cumbersome to move anywhere overseas by anything other than ship. Now it has been redesigned and 20 tons have been shaved off both the cannon and the resupply vehicle. Two can now be fitted on one military transport plane.

///OPT/// Still, Colonel Hrdy is aware of the criticism that Crusader, despite its redesign, reflects old-style, Cold War thinking that is irrelevant today. It's simply not so, he says.

///OPT HRDY ACTUALITY///

The Army really needs a revolutionary cannon that is flexible enough to support the full range of conflicts that we could be involved in --- from high-intensity conflicts like Korea where we face a potential adversary that has an eight-to-one advantage over the United States in artillery, to lower-intensity conflicts like we saw in Somalia, Kosovo, Bosnia and even Afghanistan.

///END ACTUALITY///

///OPT/// He says for example that one Crusader could be placed at an airfield in Afghanistan and provide covering fire for incoming transport planes. He says the Crusader could also be used to fire on specific targets in cities, relying on its precision munitions to avoid collateral damage. Colonel Hrdy says Crusader, if it had been available, could have taken the place of some of the fighter aircraft used for strikes on Taleban and al-Qaida positions. ///END OPT///

The Army is trying to save Crusader projects by canceling 18 other programs for a net savings of more than three billion dollars over the next four years.

But Crusader still appears to face an uncertain future. A new report by the U-S General Accounting Office says the reduced weight still does not appear to give Crusader a significant deployability advantage.

Perhaps more damaging, the report notes an overlap between the capabilities and development schedules for Crusader and the Army's next generation of tanks and cannons, known now simply as the Future Combat Systems. Both are set for deployment in 2008. The G-A-O suggests the Army may want to reconsider committing to full production of the Crusader. (Signed)

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