Industry days reveal US Army's future armoured vehicle requirements post FCS

The US Army's much-anticipated Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) – a replacement for the cancelled Future Combat Systems (FCS) vehicles – will soon be heading to the drawing board as a set of 'industry days' are held to expound requirements.

While service officials are still not revealing specifics about the vehicle's weight, drive system or even whether it will be tracked or wheeled, they have recently discussed some of the capabilities that GCV may require.

According to the Army Chief of Staff General George Casey the first platform – an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) – is expected to emerge from this effort within the next five to seven years. It is likely that this would carry an infantry squad-sized unit and be armed with a remotely operated weapon system, among other things, added Gen Casey.

This first vehicle will not necessarily be indicative of future GCV variants. "The first version is probably going to be heavier than we'd like," he said. The original FCS manned ground vehicles – which were cancelled earlier this year because of their lack of protection – weighed around 30 tons.

Lieutenant General Michael Vane, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, said that other roles and variants of the GCV might not require all the capabilities of this first IFV.