Army Breaks Up FCS

Photo from StlToday

From DoD Buzz:

Lawmakers, or at least the one lawmaker who returned to the hearing after a room clearing floor vote, Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who chairs the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, tried to get an answer today on the status of the Army’s FCS program. Conflicting press reports this week had DoD claiming the entire program had been terminated while the Army said no, in fact just the ground vehicle part had been cancelled, the rest of the program would continue.

It turns out the Army will break apart the program formerly known as FCS into three separate programs; one for new ground combat vehicles, another for technological upgrades or “spin-outs” that will go to all Army units, and a third for a communications network and software, said Army acquisition leader Lt. Gen. Ross Thompson. The confusion as to the program’s status came about because the Army had been awaiting completion of the FCS System of Systems Preliminary Design Review, which is now finished, and for “official guidance” on the way forward in the form of an acquisition decision memorandum from Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter.

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My Comment: So much for the rumors that this was program was going to be killed .... or at worse .... delayed. This program is very much alive and bouncing.