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Developing FCS 'key' to Army transformation

Army News Service

Release Date: 7/18/2003

By Spc. Bill Putnam

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 18, 2003) -- Development and eventual fielding of the Army Future Combat System by 2010 is a key step in transforming the Army, said Dennis Muilenburg.

Developing the system in seven years that will transform the current heavy force to a force that deploy in a matter of hours, will be challenging, said Muilenburg, the vice president and program manager for Future Combat Systems at Boeing Corporation.

The Chicago-based Boeing Corporation is one of two partners of the Army's FCS Lead System Integrator. The other is the Scientific Application International Corporation. Boeing and SAIC will lead 15 subcontractors in developing the Army's FCS.

The Army's transformation started with the Stryker vehicle, currently fielded by 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Wash. As envisioned by retired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Stryker is the first step in bridging the gap from heavy to lighter.

The Army had several requirements for FCS, said Muilenburg. It had to be light, about 20 tons; it had to be transportable on a C-130 Hercules-like aircraft; it had to fight upon arriving; it had to be as survivable as the current vehicles in conventional and unconventional battles; and a network had to tie the system together for battlefield communication.

Currently eight different manned vehicles like the howitzer and infantry carrier vehicles have been designated for development, Muilenburg said. Unmanned ground and aerial vehicles have also been designated too, he said. Those unmanned vehicles will perform reconnaissance, surveillance and cargo-carrying roles, he said.

There is a requirement for one of the ground vehicles to be an "armed robotic vehicle," Muilenburg said. But there isn't a requirement for any of the aerial vehicles to be armed similar to today's Predator UAV, but that could change, Muilenburg said.

"That is one spiral technology capability that we've included on our list of things to look at," Muilenburg said. "But it's not currently an official part of the program."

But it's the network that will tie everyone and everything in the Objective Force together, and will allow situational awareness compared to past wars, Muilenburg explained.

Think of the FCS as using a 10-foot pole instead of just your arms and fists in a bar fight. By pushing the enemy away, the Army will have a better opportunity to put massive firepower on one spot from a further distance, he said.

As the world becomes more urbanized in the 21st century, military planners predict that battles will be fought in those very unpredictable environments where unconventional forces will be intermixed with civilians. Military planners call those battles Military Operations in Urban Terrain, or MOUT.

Seeing that threat, the Army gave the developers a requirement for surviving in a place where guerillas can fire Rocket Propelled Grenades from sewer holes or rooftops, Muilenburg said.

As it's envisioned, Muilenburg said, the system will do incredibly well in both unconventional battles -- comparable to something the Army is facing today in Iraq -- and conventional battles -- comparable to a potential battle against the North Korean army.

The FCS will have a "decided advantages in terms of both lethality and survivability compared to our current forces," Muilenburg said.

"When there's unpredictability in the threat, that's where the network really has an advantage," he said.

The network that Boeing, SAIC and the 15 sub-contractors are developing will allow a commander a greater amount of flexibility to maneuver his units in a battle, he said.

These vehicles will be more survivable in conventional and unconventional battles than today's vehicles even though they'll be one-third the weight of an Abrams tank, Muilenburg said.

Commanders will also see how vehicles and soldiers are operating through "health monitoring" equipment that will tell a headquarters unit if they need spare parts, food or ammunition, Muilenburg said.

"Over all, this will improve the reliability and maintainability of the fighting force," he said.

Individual soldiers will also have monitoring equipment that will give physiological elements of how the soldiers are doing, he said.

Because wars in the future will be fought with other U.S. military branches and in a coalition, the FCS was approved as a joint development program, which means the Navy, Marines and Air Force will be very involved with the testing, said Muilenburg.

"We expect to work very closely with the other services to make sure we have interoperability," he said.

NATO nations aren't involved with testing now, said Muilenburg, but there is a requirement to enable coalition warfare.

Another key requirement that Boeing and the SAIC have is to tie this new system in with the current force of M1 Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley vehicle, and Stryker Brigades.

Tying those systems into the FCS will mean more information to aid communications. Battle command and situational awareness will flow better between units than is currently possible, said Muilenburg.