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ARMY ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF OBJECTIVE FORCE WARRIOR LEAD TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATOR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE R-03-036

June 6, 2003

Today, the Army announced selection of Eagle Enterprise Inc., a Division of General Dynamics of Westminster, Md., as the Lead Technology Integrator (LTI) for the Objective Force Warrior (OFW) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) program.

Eagle Enterprise Inc. has been selected to execute Phases II (Preliminary and Detailed Design) and Phase III (Demonstration Build, Training, and Demonstration) of the OFW ATD program, managed by the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center, located in Natick, Mass.

"This event is a major milestone for Army Transformation. Transformation of the Soldier is fundamental to the Army's transformation to the Objective Force. This program will be instrumental in achieving that vision," said Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Claude M. Bolton Jr.

Eagle Enterprise Inc. will receive $100 million for the 25-month Phase II Preliminary and Detailed Design effort. The cost of the 15-month Phase III Demonstration Build, Training, and Demonstration effort will be negotiated with Eagle Enterprise Inc. during Phase II. The OFW LTI effort will be awarded as a modification to an "Other Transaction Agreement" under the authority of Public Law 103-160, § 845, as amended.

This program continues efforts begun last year to conceptualize, design, and demonstrate a revolutionary soldier "system of systems" - a concept that will be demonstrated in 2006. OFW is the Army's flagship Soldier Science and Technology (S&T) program focused on providing the future soldier and small team with combat overmatch and skip-a-generation capabilities that will improve soldier survivability, enable greater combat lethality, and provide networked communications between soldiers and other combat platforms such as the Future Combat Systems and Comanche.

"Army transformation is all about networking soldiers with weapon systems, vehicles, and aircraft to create a joint, integrated fighting force with overwhelming and devastating power," said Lt. Gen. John Riggs, Director, Objective Force Task Force. "The capabilities developed and demonstrated by the OFW program will empower soldiers with an unprecedented ability to reach across the battlespace to achieve revolutionary improvements in lethality and survivability while at the same time providing superior sustainability. OFW forms the heart of the Soldier-centric Objective Force," he added.

The Objective Force is the Army's future full-spectrum force: organized, manned, equipped and trained to be more strategically responsive, deployable, agile, versatile, lethal, survivable, and sustainable across the entire spectrum of military operations.

The tenets of the Objective Force are to enable the Army to see first, understand first, act first, and finish decisively in all aspects of armed conflict -- from major theater war through peacekeeping missions and homeland security.

"Through the OFW program, the Army is seeking to achieve a paradigm shift in warfighting capability for individual soldiers. Developing solutions to the OFW challenges requires a committed team of government and industry-today we have forged this Team for success," said Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research and Technology, A. Michael Andrews.

The OFW system of systems will equip our soldiers with speed and precision for decisive full-spectrum operations. Enabled through a seamless network, the OFW soldiers will have unprecedented battlefield knowledge, standoff precision lethality, ballistic survivability, and mobility capabilities -- available today only in "platform-based" forces.

The OFW systems architecture will provide full integration into the Future Combat Systems Unit of Action-establishing the OFW Soldier as the powerful centerpiece of these formations. Perhaps most impressive of all-the OFW science and technology program seeks to provide all of these unmatched capabilities while reducing the soldier's physical load by 50 percent, down to less than 50 pounds.

OFW will transition to PEO Soldier for development and fielding as Land Warrior-Advanced Capability. "This decision marks another important step for the Army to bring enhanced capabilities to our soldiers through the Land Warrior program," said U.S. Army Program Executive Officer Soldier, Col. James R. Moran.

"As the Government lead for this program, I am very pleased with and appreciative of the partnering and support this program has received from the Army's S&T community," said Philip Brandler, Director of the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center.

The Government management responsibility for the OFW program resides with the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center, which has been the home for the development of the technology for nearly everything the soldier wears, carries, consumes, and uses for shelter.