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28-500: The program was begun to replace the UK's Sabre and Scimitar reconnaissance vehicles. The U.S. joined later and sought to replace their M3 Bradley . The future scout concept was conceived at a November 1995 meeting of senior armor officials. At this meeting, officials decided a future scout and main battle tank would be the centerpiece of the Army's armor modernization plan. In March 1996,

56-542: A $ 147 million contract for the 42-month-long advanced technology demonstration (ATD) phase of the project. In a January 1999 report, an Office of the Secretary of Defense official called for a Defense Acquisition Board review of the FSCS program. The OSD official criticized the vehicle's proposed $ 3–5 million unit cost versus the $ 3.6 million M3A3 Bradley. The report said that while the Army mission need statement specified

84-696: A belt-fed machine gun. The UK initiated the Tactical Reconnaissance Armoured Combat Equipment Requirement (TRACER) to replace the Sabre and Scimitar . In 1996 the U.S. joined in on the project. In 2001, both the UK and U.S. dropped out of the joint program. The marriage of the Fox turret and Scorpion chassis was not successful, and Sabre was withdrawn from British Army service in 2004. Future Combat Systems Future Combat Systems ( FCS )

112-413: A future scout vehicle. Developing the program with British cooperation was expected to save the U.S. Army 30 percent to 40 percent through the engineering and manufacturing development phase. The UK was given contracting authority for phase one (called the project definition phase in the UK, and the advanced technology demonstration phase in the U.S.). Phase two (engineering and manufacturing development in

140-525: A lightly armored vehicle, the vehicle specified in the requirements was more like a "medium tank" comparable to the canceled M8 Armored Gun System . In February, the U.S. Army began working with the UK to revise the requirements of the joint program to resolve the OSD's concerns. The new requirements, which went into effect in March, pacified the OSD. Many requirements were loosened at the OSD's request: for example,

168-1058: A memorandum on 23 June 2009 that canceled the Future Combat Systems program and replaced it with separate programs under the Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization umbrella to meet the Army's plans. The following subsystems were swept into the Brigade Combat Team Modernization Program : FCS was networked via an advanced architecture, called System of Systems Common Operating Environment (SOSCOE) that would enable enhanced joint connectivity and situational awareness (see Network-centric warfare ). SOSCOE targets x86-Linux , VxWorks , and LynxOS . The FCS (BCT) network consists of five layers that when combined would provide seamless delivery of data: The Standards, Transport, Services, Applications, and Sensors and Platforms Layers. The FCS (BCT) network possesses

196-562: The 1st Armored Division . In August 2005, the program met 100% of the criteria in its most important milestone, System of Systems Functional Review. On October 5, 2005, Pentagon team recommended "further delaying the Army's Future Combat Systems program" in light of the costs of the Iraq War , Hurricane Katrina , and expected declines in future budgets. The Pentagon announced plans in January 2006 to cut $ 236 million over five years from

224-763: The United States Marine Corps , the United States Air Force , the United States Navy ground-based expeditionary forces (e.g., United States Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) and Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) units), the United Kingdom , and German Soldier System IdZ-ES+. In April and May 2009, Pentagon and army officials announced that the FCS vehicle-development effort would be canceled. The rest of

252-732: The XM1100 Scorpion was established as a stand-alone program in January 2007. The Class II and Class III UAVs were canceled in May 2007. In June 2007, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) criticized the "close working relationship" between the Army and the lead system integrators. The GAO recommended the Office of the Secretary of Defense reassert its oversight authority and prepare an alternative should FCS be canceled. The Department of Defense agreed with

280-502: The $ 25 billion FCS 2007–2011 budget. The entire program was expected to cost $ 340 billion. As of late December 2006, funding was scaled back for critical elements of the overall FCS battlespace, and the most advanced elements were deferred. Decreases in the Army’s funding and the high cost of developing the intelligent munition system caused the DoD to delete the project from the FCS contract, and

308-791: The ATD phase. The Pentagon persuaded Congress to restore funding in October 2000. In October 2001, the U.S. and British Army mutually canceled the program. The U.S. hoped to leverage the technologies developed with FSCS in the Future Combat Systems program. The British were expected to do the same with the Future Rapid Effect System . Sabre (tank) Sabre is a variation of the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) , featuring

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336-723: The Army Armor Center at Fort Knox recommended that the Army develop a future scout vehicle to be ready for production around 2004 to 2006. The Army considered the M8 Armored Gun System and the M113 as the basis for the chassis. The group projected that the future scout program would cost $ 1 billion. The Armor Center recommended that the Army forgo the M3A3 Bradley upgrade, and instead upgrade 278 M3A2s with Operation Desert Storm fixes. The Armor Center concluded

364-492: The BFT system in general have won numerous awards and accolades, including: recognition in 2001 as one of the five best-managed software programs in the entire U.S. Government, the 2003 Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's award for most innovative U.S. Government program, the 2003 Federal Computer Week Monticello Award (given in recognition of an information system that has a direct, meaningful impact on human lives), and

392-677: The Battlespace Information 2005 "Best Program in Support of Coalition Operations". The proof-of-concept success of FBCB2, its extensive testing during Operation Foal Eagle (FE 99, FE 00), its certification at the Fort Irwin National Training Center , and its proven field usage in live combat operations spanning over a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to BFT adoption by many users including

420-629: The Bradley was approaching its design limit and had many disadvantages as a scout—namely, it lacked stealth and its 25 mm cannon lacked "growth potential against future threats." The Armor Center also suggested the Army consider a joint project with the Marine Corps, which was drafting requirements for the Future Light Combat Vehicle. In October 1996 the U.S. and British armies signed a letter of intent to jointly work on

448-483: The DoD commenced the development and demonstration phase in a $ 14.92 billion contract. As planned, FCS included the network; unattended ground sensors (UGS); unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); unmanned ground vehicles; and the eight manned ground vehicles . The Boeing Company and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) worked together as the lead systems integrators, coordinating more than 550 contractors and subcontractors in 41 states. A spiral model

476-884: The FCS effort would be swept into a new, pan-army program called the Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization Program . The early joint DARPA–Army Future Combat Systems program to replace the M1 Abrams main battle tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicles envisioned robotic vehicles weighing under six tons each and controlled remotely by manned command and control vehicles. In February 2001 DARPA awarded $ 5.5 million to eight teams to develop unmanned ground combat vehicles (UGCV). Teams led by General Dynamics Land Systems , Carnegie Mellon University , and Omnitech Robotics were awarded nearly $ 1 million each to develop UGCVs prototypes. Five other teams were to develop UGCVs payloads. In May 2003

504-482: The IAV, the U.S. Army decided to terminate FSCS. In December 1999 the Army said it would end its participation in the joint program after the completion of the advanced technology demonstration (ATD) phase. At the time, the UK was still very much committed to its participation in the project. Congress, believing that continued development of the program was unnecessary given the Army's disinterest, deleted funding for completing

532-622: The U.S. and full-scale development in the UK) would proceed with the phase one participants. One contractor would be downselected for low-rate production. In November 1996, the U.S. Army updated its future scout mission need statement. As of January 1998, the U.S. Army sought to acquire 1095 of the vehicles, and the British Army sought 235. In January 1999, the UK awarded SIKA International (a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems ) and LANCER (a consortium led by GEC Marconi ), each

560-467: The latter suggestion, to which the Army responded by calling the GAO report "rooted in the past, not the present". In 2008, the program had completed about one-third of its development, which was planned to run through 2030. Technical field tests began in 2008. The first combat brigade equipped with FCS had been expected to deploy around 2015, followed by full production to equip up to 15 brigades by 2030, but

588-518: The new requirements clarified that the primary armament need not be an autocannon. In October, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki laid out his vision for a lighter, more transportable armored force. The Army launched the Interim Armored Vehicle acquisition program, and began investing in "leap-ahead" technologies for Shinseki's "objective force" Future Combat Systems Manned Ground Vehicles program. In order to help pay for

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616-422: The program had not met the initial plan of field testing an actual FCS-equipped combat unit by 2008. On April 6, 2009, President Barack Obama 's Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates announced plans to cut FCS spending as part of a shift toward spending more on counter-terrorism and less to prepare for conventional warfare against large states like China and Russia. This included, but was not limited to, canceling

644-404: The series of Manned Ground Vehicles. In May 2009, the proposed DoD budget for fiscal year 2010 had minimal funding for Manned Ground Vehicles research. The Army planned to restart from the beginning on manned ground vehicles. The service was to restructure FCS so more Army units will be supported. Boeing passed a preliminary design review of all 14 subsystems in May 2009. The DoD released

672-443: The turret from a wheeled Fox Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle mounted on the hull of a tracked FV101 Scorpion . This UK hybrid vehicle was introduced as a less expensive way of producing a similar vehicle to the 30mm cannon armed FV107 Scimitar tracked reconnaissance vehicle, but with a slightly lower profile turret . It was brought into service in 1995. During initial combat exercises, several flaws were identified. In particular,

700-451: The vehicle lacked defensive capabilities. As such, modifications were made to the turret of the Sabre to include redesigned smoke grenade launchers and the L94A1 7.62 mm chain gun replacing the standard 7.62 mm FN MAG general-purpose machine gun , for anti-personnel use. An ammunition hopper sits on the side of the machine gun allowing the weapon to be more quickly reloaded than

728-576: Was expended on programs such as this, "with little to show for it". One of the programs that came out of the $ 32 billion expenditure was the concept of tracking friendly ("blue") forces on the field via a GPS-enabled computer system known as Blue Force Tracking (BFT). The concept of BFT was implemented by the US Army through the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) platform. The FBCB2 system in particular and

756-843: Was planned for FCS development and upgrades. As of 2004, FCS was in the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase, which included four two-year spirals. Spiral 1 was to begin fielding in Fiscal Year 2008 and consist of prototypes for use and evaluation. Following successful evaluation, production and fielding of Spiral 2 would have commenced in 2010. The evaluation was conducted by the Army Evaluation Task Force (AETF), previously known as Evaluation Brigade Combat Team (EBCT), stationed in Fort Bliss . As of December 2007, AETF consisted of 1,000 soldiers from

784-485: Was the United States Army 's principal modernization program from 2003 to early 2009. Formally launched in 2003, FCS was envisioned to create new brigades equipped with new manned and unmanned vehicles linked by an unprecedented fast and flexible battlefield network. The U.S. Army claimed it was their "most ambitious and far-reaching modernization" program since World War II. Between 1995 and 2009, $ 32 billion

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