It’s official: After $450 billion, the Army’s quick-moving force of the future will be just about as slow as the one that’s around right now.
As I noted in June, one of the big ideas behind the Army’s massive modernization effort, Future Combat Systems, was to make American troops more mobile – able to get around the world in a matter of days or weeks, instead of the months that are needed now.
The first step: slim down the service’s cannon and armored vehicles. Today, it takes a gargantuan C-17 or C-5 transport plane to lug a single, 32-ton Paladin 155 mm howitzer. Army planners wanted the Paladin’s next-gen replacement to weigh in at 19 tons or less – so one could fit inside a much smaller C-130 transport plane, instead.
After dancing around the issue for a couple of months, the Army has now delcared that neither the Paladin replacement nor any other FCS vehicle is going to fit into a C-130, according to Defense News‘ Greg Grant. And that “appears to abandon the fundamental rationale for FCS, which was intended to speed Army brigades to combat zones around the world within 96 hours.”
The Army created the FCS concept about five years ago, after long delays in deploying a small air-ground task force to the Balkans raised questions about the service’s strategic relevance. Under Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army’s former chief of staff, the service scrambled for lighter armored vehicles to replace heavy Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles…
[Army Secretary Francis] Harvey’s announcement appears to confirm that the Army does not have the technology to allow lighter vehicles to survive future anti-armor threats. This is in part a realization born of tough losses in Iraq, where 70-ton Abrams and Bradleys have been lost to roadside explosives and rocket-propelled grenades.
But more than FCS’ weight requirement has changed. As recently as last year, the program was slated to cost $92 billion. Then, suddenly, that estimate ballooned — first to $127 billion, and next to $145 billion. Finally, we were told that this gargantuan sum would only pay for transforming a third or less of the Army.
And what would be so different, after all that cash was spent? When the program first got started, the armored vehicles were not only going to be light — they were going to be electric-powered. And they were going to fire laser weapons. Now, all of that has been dropped, understandably.
But even the more basic changes have seemed near-impossible to pull off. The effort to get all soldiers on a common radio, for example, is facing massive restructuring, after the project’s main contractor, Boeing, seems to have flushed $5 billion and three years worth of work down the toilet.
“The government has not seen sufficient evidence of the contractor teams’ understanding of the scale of integration required… to ultimately achieve the program requirements,” the Army told Boeing in an April letter. “Nor has the industry team displayed sufficient ability to estimate a cost and schedule baseline and rigorously manage to that baseline.”
In other words, the radio project has become slow and bloated. Just like the rest of FCS.
Re, by Bill:”…the next likely war would involve Russia, China and possibley Iran….”
Rather than Bills “trifecta” here’s my bet on what will constitute our next full-on “war”, rather than another voluntary liberation:
China’s real objective in using such a high percentage of their ever-growing national “spend” to jump-start a military upgrade across the board by going on an international arms shoopping spree, could be to one day be able to simply go and ~take~ Taiwan, quick & dirty, and then sit there and dare the U.S. to do anything about it, as our treaty with Taiwan promises we would.
Complicating this, and (I believe) to specific purpose, is that fact that the Chinese have been by far the biggest purchaser of U.S. Treasury Bonds for the last five years or so. Not to be forgotten that the sellintg of more & more bonds is what has been financing the fights in Afghanistan and both Gulf wars, and will be financing the new costs for rebuilding from the hurricanes.
Would that seem to put us into a really difficult position, should we one day find the Chinese Army parked on Taiwan? Yeah, I could see how that might complicate things.
The problem, for us, is what the rest of the world would think should it become obvious that we did not indeed intend to do anything, about it. Would very many global leaders fail to think that they’ve just witnessed an historic transfer of power, “at the top”?
That’s one outcome, and the other is a heck of a lot uglier: Because we’re (still) the “good guys”, we see no other choice so we go and keep our “promise”, and all hell breaks loose, not only militarily but economically as well. But, the ~good~ part would be, that we sure as heck would once and for all get to find out if current theories about armored warfare were correct! ;]
Re; from T.L. Steele: “…as a Marine NCO I can honestly say I was privileged to serve with some of the finest men I have ever known. These men were Marine officers and with few exceptions were more concerned with the well being of their troops than their own safety.”…
Yeah for sure; not to ever have anyone in the whole military and indutrial system forget G. Patton’s wise advice on “purpose”; “…make the ~other~ poor dumb SOB die for ~his~ country!”
“Marine Corps this Marine Corps that. Bla… Bla..
Bla…” It seem there is too much animosity between the USMC and US Army. Well let me put it this way the USMC is great and I have alot of respect for you guys but… you guys patrol cities
we invade countries.
What about the Stryker? Isn’t it the field now? Doesn’t it only wiegh 19 tons (IE we can move it with the c130)? Everyone I know that has been to the field with the stryker loved it, and while it will not replace tanks. In many cases it is far easier to move around and work with than a Bradley, plus it is a one chassie system where mortor, 121mm (Like the Abrams), medical, troup trasport, etc etc is all on the same plaform making matanance and operations easier to plan and manage.
Or are we talking about something else that I am missing?
Does anyone know how many aircraft carriers the US Navy has?
I think one important aspect to all of this is that we agreed to size down or military until it becomes a hollow force. This started during the Kennedy administration and is supposedly in its final stages. You can read it for yourself. The Arms control and diarmament act. Go to a legal library on a college campus it is called Public Law 87-297. It established a committee of individuals who have oversight authority of all our forces. It actually says under-sea forces, ground forces, air forces and those that may operate in orbit. They are to also have control of how we deploy troops, how we equip them, R&D spending, etc. This was over 40 years ago. Look it up, please..
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Just another example of congressmen dumping money into the military industrial complex to benefit the rich oligarchy, while we the people and soldiers lose.
well, thats one reason the Roman Empire fell because they let the Military rot away and mostly with forigners in the Legions. History repeating itself and now with the new army uniforms which makes it easy for an untrained peasent to spot and shoot a soldier easily and category 4 recruits, might as well just have the boyscouts run the show.
What strikes me most about FCS vehicles is the lack of creativity in their design, and the inability to integrate into the design features that would enhance commander’s ability to enhance application of basic tactical principles.
what we need to do is start with and new armour to use on vehicles. then to start with a common base for tankes and truck so that there are interchangeable so if one breakdowns or if there is an update to armour you just swich the passenger and storge sections. so theres two part the engine and the passenger compartment, which helps save money with common part.
Maybe instead of designing whole new vehicles a low power point defense laser system could be mounted on existing vehicles and used to detonate RPGs before they hit. It could be made out of currently existing technology, certainly for less than those 450 billion. The complex part would be developing an automatic fire system that could react on time but i’m pretty sure with those kinds of funds it could be done.