(NSI News Source Info) April 11, 2009: Just days after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates killed the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems' (FCS) $87 billion Manned Ground Vehicles (MGV) program, service leaders said they would gin up a new modernization plan within weeks.
The BAE Systems Land and Armaments XM1203 Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS Cannon) is a 155 mm cannon intended to provide improved responsiveness and lethality to the "Unit of Action" (UA) commander as part of the US Army's Future Combat Systems project. This mobile armored artillery piece provides networked, extended-range targeting, and precision attack of point and area targets in support of other combat units with a suite of munitions that include special purpose capabilities. The Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon provides sustained fire for close support and destructive fire for tactical standoff engagement. The NLOS Cannon uses technology from the canceled XM2001 Crusader.
"The MGV is going back to the drawing board. In the next week to four weeks, we will go through a series of deliberations and analysis to see what the MGV program will grow into," an Army official said.
The vehicles likely will still hook into the under-development FCS network but be built tough enough to withstand roadside bombs and explosively formed penetrators, the Army official said.
In his April 6 press conference, Gates said the Army's 27-ton MGVs, designed to skirt combat rather than survive a hit, were not suited to the kind of action the land service was facing in Iraq and Afghanistan and would likely face in the future. Nor were the vehicles being procured via sufficient competition under the FCS program, which is run by Boeing and SAIC, he said.
Gates underlined the need to buy new vehicles that could take a pounding.
"I think we have an obligation to make sure that the Army in '10,'11,'12, gets on with a new modernization program," Gates said. "An Army vehicle modernization program designed to meet the needs of the full spectrum of conflict is essential."
It's unclear how much of the work done on MGVs will be applicable to the Army's new effort.
"There are things one could do theoretically to redesign," said Daniel Gouré, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank. "The question is, how much do you do before it becomes a new vehicle or an MRAP [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle]? The question that bothered observers was the dependence of the FCS system on the network and the question of what happens if something happens to the network. Typically, the Plan B has always been armor."
For example, the Army may require new vehicles to have an armor bed with a V-shaped hull, like the one unveiled in June for the MGVs.
The first variant of the eight MGVs was to be the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), a hybrid-electric-powered 155mm howitzer that was to fire six GPS-guided artillery shells a minute and place four on one target at the same time.
The NLOS-C would have fended off rocket-propelled grenades with an active protection system. A prototype NLOS-C was unveiled in June.
Other vehicles were the Mounted Combat System, which fires 120mm tanks rounds; the Command and Control Vehicle; and the Infantry Carrier Vehicle. The MGVs shared 80 percent of their chassis.
Also, Gates said he would allow development and production to continue on FCS spinout technologies, including small cave-clearing robots, sensors, guided missiles, UAVs and the first increment of the FCS network.
The BAE Systems Land and Armaments XM1203 Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS Cannon) is a 155 mm cannon intended to provide improved responsiveness and lethality to the "Unit of Action" (UA) commander as part of the US Army's Future Combat Systems project. This mobile armored artillery piece provides networked, extended-range targeting, and precision attack of point and area targets in support of other combat units with a suite of munitions that include special purpose capabilities. The Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon provides sustained fire for close support and destructive fire for tactical standoff engagement. The NLOS Cannon uses technology from the canceled XM2001 Crusader.
"The MGV is going back to the drawing board. In the next week to four weeks, we will go through a series of deliberations and analysis to see what the MGV program will grow into," an Army official said.
The vehicles likely will still hook into the under-development FCS network but be built tough enough to withstand roadside bombs and explosively formed penetrators, the Army official said.
In his April 6 press conference, Gates said the Army's 27-ton MGVs, designed to skirt combat rather than survive a hit, were not suited to the kind of action the land service was facing in Iraq and Afghanistan and would likely face in the future. Nor were the vehicles being procured via sufficient competition under the FCS program, which is run by Boeing and SAIC, he said.
Gates underlined the need to buy new vehicles that could take a pounding.
"I think we have an obligation to make sure that the Army in '10,'11,'12, gets on with a new modernization program," Gates said. "An Army vehicle modernization program designed to meet the needs of the full spectrum of conflict is essential."
It's unclear how much of the work done on MGVs will be applicable to the Army's new effort.
"There are things one could do theoretically to redesign," said Daniel Gouré, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank. "The question is, how much do you do before it becomes a new vehicle or an MRAP [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle]? The question that bothered observers was the dependence of the FCS system on the network and the question of what happens if something happens to the network. Typically, the Plan B has always been armor."
For example, the Army may require new vehicles to have an armor bed with a V-shaped hull, like the one unveiled in June for the MGVs.
The first variant of the eight MGVs was to be the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), a hybrid-electric-powered 155mm howitzer that was to fire six GPS-guided artillery shells a minute and place four on one target at the same time.
The NLOS-C would have fended off rocket-propelled grenades with an active protection system. A prototype NLOS-C was unveiled in June.
Other vehicles were the Mounted Combat System, which fires 120mm tanks rounds; the Command and Control Vehicle; and the Infantry Carrier Vehicle. The MGVs shared 80 percent of their chassis.
Also, Gates said he would allow development and production to continue on FCS spinout technologies, including small cave-clearing robots, sensors, guided missiles, UAVs and the first increment of the FCS network.
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