Non-Subscriber Extract
US Future Combat Systems face radical revision
By Caitlin Harrington
25 June 2009
The top acquisition official at the US Department of Defense released a plan on 23 June that would cancel the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) programme, splitting it into smaller pieces and eliminating plans to buy FCS ground vehicles.
The original USD160 billion FCS programme aimed to buy a whole network of technology - from unmanned aircraft to ground vehicles and sensors - that would be linked together through communications channels and be fully interoperable. Boeing was the prime contractor for the entire project.
However, Ashton Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, announced on 23 June in an 'acquisition decision memorandum' that the Pentagon would now divide FCS into smaller parts, picking and choosing which technology it wants to buy.
Carter's memorandum also announced the termination of the manned ground vehicle portion of the former FCS programme.