Industry team developing Army's Future Combat System
Army News Service
Release Date: 7/18/2003
By Spc. Bill Putnam
WASHINGTON (Army News Service July 18, 2003) -- The Army took a step last week toward transforming to a lighter, faster force with the Future Combat Systems of 18 manned and unmanned vehicles by 2010.
The Army FCS Lead System Integrator team of Boeing and Science Application International named 15 subcontractors July 10 that will work to develop the Army's new family of vehicles on what one Boeing executive called, "a tight development schedule."
The 15 new partners will lead 70 companies that will work as key developers of the FCS with the Army and its LSI.
An earlier milestone in the FCS program was reached May 14 when the Chicago-based Boeing Corporation and SAIC signed a $14.92 billion System Development and Demonstration contract. This was called "Milestone B."
"Our responsibility is to bring onboard the rest of the industry participants and build a best-of-industry team," said Dennis Muilenburg, vice president and program manager for the Future Combat Systems at Boeing.
It's the job of the Army LSI and its partners develop the 18 manned and unmanned vehicles, and the computer system that will support the FCS.
The Army had several requirements for the Objective Force to be fielded seven years from now as part of its efforts at transformation. The vehicles can't weigh more than 20 tons, and units that field them have to be transportable by a C-130 Hercules-like plane anywhere in the world within 96 hours, according to documents provided by the Army's Objective Force Task Force. The units will also have to fight conventional or unconventional battles upon arriving on the battlefield.
As part of the evaluation to hire the subcontractors, the 15 firms shared with Boeing and SAIC what projects they were individually developing. Some are farther along than others, said Steve Marion, the director of supplier management for FCS at Boeing.
"The sensor organizations that are going to be developing the sensor integrators, some of them have products that are already available," Marion said. "Then others that may be doing some software have some software that they've already developed with the government as part of this program."
The 17 corporations involved are doing a lot of parallel development right now because of the fast development schedule and emerging technologies, said Muilenburg.
"By doing the parallel development we have the ability to define what's common across man and unmanned systems," Muilenburg said.
Although Boeing is the lead firm on the contract, it won't be testing any vehicles. That's being left up to the sub-contractors who will develop the first prototypes by 2006, Muilenburg said.
The corporation's main focus during the current testing will be the software that actually ties everything together.
It's a reasonable analogy to say Boeing will be responsible for the Windows operating system that will tie the entire family of vehicles together, Muilenburg said.
"That networking of separate systems so that they operate as a "system of systems" is what we think is the real value-added that we bring to the Army," he said.
That network that Muilenburg is working on will eventually touch every soldier on the battlefield -- in the combat arms units and supporting elements of the Army, he said.
"It's really designed to help the individual soldier have a better situational awareness of the battlefield around him." Muilenburg said.
Most of the studies on wheeled versus tracked vehicles, how the vehicles will be powered and gun caliber for the howitzer and tank vehicles will be completed by 2004, Muilenburg said.
Some of those vehicles will use existing technologies like vehicle computer displays used by the 4th Infantry Division today. The now-cancelled Crusader howitzer loading system will also be used during testing and might actually be adopted for the system, Muilenburg said.
"So we're trying to take maximum advantage of on-going and current technologies," Muilenburg said.
Another key requirement of FCS is what Muilenburg called "open system architecture."
Because the vehicles will be built around a common hardware and software platform, replacing or upgrading a part or sensor will be easier than it is currently on, say, a Bradley fighting vehicle, Muilenburg said.
"So in other words, you can switch out modules of hardware and software very easily because they attach to a core common operating environment. The real benefit there is to 'spiral' in new technology," Muilenburg said.
All that hardware is important, but "the key thing to note here is that we're really focusing on networking those platforms together" during this development phase, Muilenburg added.
Muilenburg said the biggest challenge is time. His job is to form a team from a broad cross section of high-technology industry and developing a new system of war-fighting vehicles and sensors in such an "aggressive schedule" of seven years.
Developing such a large software job and integrating the 18 different platforms -- which have their own challenges individually - into a cohesive network is the real challenge, he said.
"That combination of things does give us a challenge," he said.
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