Future Combat Systems modernization still alive

Fort Lauderdale -- Despite stop-work orders issued in April by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the $160 billion Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is moving forward with modernization plans to enter a new phase that will incorporate some old technologies and new capabilities, an Army official said today.

Army Brig. Gen. Lee Price, deputy program manager of the service’s FCS next-generation Brigade Combat Team, said that the new program will mesh current and future systems and networks, and will capitalize on joint capabilities. “Interoperability is serious business,” she said at the LandWarNet 2009 conference.

Still, taking down a 10-year-old military program has its own set of challenges. “It doesn’t all split out that well when it has been one cohesive organization for so long,” Price said.

For now, Price will focus on efficient ways to cease the manned vehicle program at the center of Gates’ stand-down orders by identifying methods that will cost taxpayers the least and capture FCS design efforts. She added that collaboration between the Army and the Marine Corps will help identify joint capability gaps in the transition to the modernization plan, and – hopefully – a unified battle command.

“I’ve seen how situations like this worked in the past. We better come up with a plan in a hurry,” Price said.