Army's Future Combat System Program Is In Danger

An unmanned aerial vehicle that provides surveillance for the military and was part of a program projected to cost $160 billion. United States Army

Conflicting Priorities Endanger High-Tech Army Program -- The New York Times

The Army hatched a plan a decade ago for a new approach to fighting ground wars. Called Future Combat Systems, it was an ambitious project to develop networks of high-tech vehicles, drones and robotic sensors to act as frontline spies on enemy targets.

“We wanted to go deep and really stretch and see if we could come up with a new conceptual basis for the Army,” said Joe G. Taylor Jr., a retired Army major general who was involved in the early stages of the program.

But that future is unlikely to arrive.

The Obama administration began scaling back the program late last month and breaking it into pieces, as part of a broader effort to overhaul expensive weapons contracts and focus more on fighting insurgencies.

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My Comment: Secretary of Defense Gates has always been focused on having the tools to fight today's wars .... not some future combat. The Future Combat System has shortcomings that are only now becoming evident in today's wars. The fact that some parts of this program are going to be scrapped should not be a surprise to anyone.

My take for what is the future .... I believe the focus will still be on the development and production of robots/drones that can be used to target and eliminate the enemy. Better intelligence tools will also be developed in assisting human operators when they are using these weapon platforms to target the enemy.