By Ann Roosevelt

In Washington yesterday, the Army displayed the first of its Future Combat Systems (FCS) Manned Ground Vehicles (MGV): the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C).

“FCS is real and relevant…What you see around you are the results of a decades worth of work,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey told a large crowd of interested onlookers examining the NLOS-C and other FCS equipment on the National Mall.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) checked out NLOS-C stem-to-stern and told the crowd, “It’s a very significant day where you can see the reality” of years of effort. The NLOS-C will be built in Elgin, Okla., chosen because of its proximity to Ft. Sill, home of the field artillery and soon, air defense artillery. The cannon can roll off the assembly line and into the Ft. Sill test range (Defense Daily, July 20).

The 155mm auto-loading NLOS-C prototype is the first of a family of eight manned ground vehicles for the future part of a major modernization effort for a strategic environment envisioned as requiring a full-spectrum force.

For fiscal year 2009 the Army for the first time requested $110 million for NLOS-C production vehicles. The Army budget request provides for manufacturing and assembly of the initial six NLOS-C platforms to be fielded in FY 2010. It also procures long-lead hardware for the second increment of platforms. Another $90 million was requested for NLOS-C research development test and evaluation (Defense Daily, Feb. 13).

Congress, which has long supported the program, in FY ’07, made an effort to insulate NLOS-C from larger issues of FCS funding and schedule to ensure fielding (Defense Daily, Oct. 13, 2006).

BAE Systems is developing NLOS-C, which would replace the Crusader self-propelled howitzer, terminated by the Army in 2002. NLOS-C development is shaped by work done by BAE on Crusader.

BAE is partnered with General Dynamics [GD] in developing the FCS Manned Ground Vehicles. Lead System Integrator Boeing [BA] and SAIC [SAI] manage the FCS program of 14 systems and a network tying systems to each other and to soldiers.

With a crew of two, NLOS-C automation gives soldiers the ability to engage targets four to six times faster than current artillery systems. The projectile tracking system improves accuracy and the ability to use the FCS network and sensors allow the crew to provide accurate sustained fire across the full spectrum of conflict.

In addition, NLOS-C has the hybrid-electric propulsion system requiring less fuel and representing Army-wide efforts to utilize hybrid technology in vehicles. This system and a common chassis and components and subsystems will be utilized on all MGVs, reducing the logistics burden.

Eight NLOS-C prototypes will be produced between 2008 and 2009 that will be tested, certified and evaluated at Army test sites. Information gleaned during these efforts will be used across the MGV family to make cost-saving adjustments before the entire MGV family of vehicles is prototyped in 2011 for fielding in 2015.

Soldiers at the Army’s Evaluation Task Force (AETF) at Ft. Bliss will receive 18 NLOS-C test vehicles starting in 2010. The AETF will put the vehicles through combat scenarios that will provide information that can be applied to improve the final design for the production NLOS-C vehicles and the other MGV vehicles.