Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania) June 08, 2003
Army Of The Future Lighter, More Lethal
Iraq War Jump-Starts Transformation
By Michael Woods
The U. S. Army of the Future has started marching out of the planners' bivouac and could arrive on fields of battle by the end of the decade.
It will be armed with a wide array of big-bang-for-big-bucks high-tech devices developed under the Future Combat Systems program, including a fundamentally new mechanized force based on electronics rather than armor. Light and mobile, some units could be deployed to trouble spots anywhere in hours or days.
The $90 billion program is the centerpiece of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's plan to transform the U.S. military from an industrial age fighting force rooted in the 20th century to a 21st century armada of the information age.
"[Future Combat Systems] will give our soldiers an overwhelming advantage in future operations because they will be able to see first, understand first, act first, and finish decisively," said Army Lt. Gen. John Caldwell, a top planner involved in the program.
FCS was approved for "development and demonstration" last month and allocated an initial $14.92 billion. As conceived by the U.S. Army Science Board in the 1990s, FCS equipment would not have become battle-ready until 2015. Rumsfeld's "transformation" drive has advanced the deployment date; some combat units are expected to be equipped with FCS technology within seven years.
Speed and mobility in responding to future trouble spots are the driving forces behind FCS, which focuses on an ambitious goal: Enable commanders to dispatch a brigade of 2,500-5,000 soldiers anywhere in the world within 96 hours, a division of 10,000-18,000 within 120 hours, and five divisions within 30 days.
Troops won't sit overseas for days or weeks awaiting equipment. A new generation of wheeled vehicles -- including replacements for the venerable Abrams tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle -- will fit into transport aircraft so they can be flown anywhere on short notice. Soldiers will step off their planes fully equipped and ready to fight.
They will wage high-tech warfare, the likes of which has been seen only in science fiction thrillers, with an almost mind-boggling dependence on electronics.
One cornerstone of the program, conceived by the Defense Advanced Projects Agency: Assault vehicles will be fast and lightly armored because they will see and kill the enemy long before they get into his gun sights. If a tank does goof up, "self-protection weapons" will neutralize incoming enemy fire.
Troops will have almost 20 new land and aerial vehicles, all told, ranging from tanks and fighting vehicles to robotic reconnaissance vehicles bristling with sensors and spy cameras, to "rockets in a box" that can be easily transported and fired from anywhere, to a new mortar round that sprouts wings and homes in on targets like a mini-cruise missile.
Other innovations include toy-sized trucks and tanks that spy or kill; anti-tank missiles that can "loiter" over potential targets for a half hour before striking; three-dimensional targeting systems; and a mobile Internet for battlefield communications that link all the elements together.
Networked commanders and soldiers will have unprecedented "situational awareness." They will know where the enemy is no matter what the terrain, time or weather. Soldiers wielding ultra-accurate, ultra-lethal weapons will kill their targets from a distance, long before they pose a threat.
The quick, low-casualty victory in Iraq carried Future Combat Systems over the threshold from planning into actual development, although the program does have its critics.
"Operation Iraqi Freedom was a clear validation that we are on the right path -- with an FCS program that provides for a lighter more mobile force with even greater lethality and survivability," said Lt. Gen. John M. Riggs, director of a planning task force.
Boeing Co.'s Integrated Defense Systems unit, in Chicago, and Science Applications International Corp., based in San Diego, will be the main contractors. Dozens of subcontractors will also work to develop and demonstrate prototype vehicles and equipment.
Decisions on whether to actually produce the equipment, and where it would be manufactured, are years away and depend heavily on how the prototypes perform. Initial work through 2004 involves mainly software development and mechanical, structural, electrical and systems engineering.
The Pentagon has put a 20-ton weight limit on new vehicles, including the armored assault vehicles that will replace the Abram's tank (70 tons) and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (33 tons). This would allow any of them to be transported on planes such as the workhorse Lockheed C-130, which has a cargo capacity of about 22 tons. Several vehicles could travel on one Boeing C-17 type transport, with its 84-ton capacity.
FCS vehicles and equipment would be 50 percent lighter than existing counterparts. Vehicles will move faster, use less fuel, and need 50 percent less maintenance and other logistical support.
"As a result of this dramatic reduction in weight, the force may have to rely more on surprise, dispersion, and standoff with massed effects to achieve its goals," one study by RAND Corp. said.
It also raised questions about the effectiveness of certain FCS elements, including their vulnerability to fire from heavy enemy tanks, simple countermeasures like smokescreens and high civilian causalities if the technology is used in urban warfare.
The Pentagon says FCS technology will overcome such concerns.
RAND also pointed out that FCS may require changes in government decision-making to take advantage of the ability to deploy troops quickly and surprise an enemy. "The ability to deploy quickly may ultimately mean very little if the decision time to use the force is lengthy," the study said.
About 100 new technologies underpin FCS, including some already in advanced stages of development. The new howitzer, for instance, will draw heavily on technology from the Crusader, a 40-ton, automated, digitally equipped cannon that the Pentagon canceled in 2002 after spending $2 billion to develop it.
NOTES:Michael Woods can be reached at mwoods@nationalpress.com or 1-202-662-7072.
GRAPHIC: INFORMATIONAL GRAPHIC: Michael Woods and Steve Thomas/Post-Gazette: www.globalsecurity.org: (The future of combat)
Copyright © 2003, P.G. Publishing Co.
