By Ann Roosevelt
The Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program successfully completed evaluations and tests of the initial phases of its network on the way to linking the service to a common battlefield network.
The Integrated Mission Test-1 (IMT-1) validated early prototypes of FCS battle command system software by having soldiers evaluate and analyze how they executed their missions.
Maj. Gen. John Bartley, program manager, Future Combat Systems (BCT), said at a recent program update at a Florida conference that he’s “very confident in how far the program has come and its ability to go forward.”
The FCS program has moved a long way from the early PowerPoint days, Bartley said. “There’s a prototype built already for nearly every piece of equipment that’s out there.”
Boeing [BA] and SAIC [SAI] manage the program for the Army as the Lead System Integrator.
The IMT-1 tests came after more than two years of software development and paired soldiers and industry. The soldiers are part of the 5th Brigade Army Evaluation Task Force (AETF), 1st Armor Division based at Ft. Bliss, Texas, and work with FCS equipment offering insights and recommendations on such things as ergonomics and how information is displayed and moved.
Gregg Martin, program manager FCS and Boeing vice president, said each FCS phase has an integrated mission test “aimed at areas of risk, to ensure that there’s enough development behind us to proceed on at low risk.”
Dan Zanini, deputy program manager FCS and a senior vice president for SAIC, said “the IMT allows us to look at the maturation of the core program, and puts soldiers in loop with us.”
Changes soldiers desire can be incorporated during development and cycled into the next design iterations, to ensure that when hardware and software are produced, it is what soldiers want and need.
“The core concept is to use technology to unburden the soldier from mechanical tasks,” Zanini said. This means the Army can use fewer and fewer soldiers to do more tasks, which allows more of them to become generalists, which in turn, has an impact on life-cycle costs.
During IMT-1, soldiers were part of a variety of simulated combat exercises that helped verify that the integration of FCS systems and the battle command software is moving as planned.
The tests were conducted at the FCS Common Control Node at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., where 45 soldiers used a prototype warfighter machine interface connecting them with an entire network. The displays provided a common operating picture of the battle space. Soldier’s crewed Manned Ground Vehicle mockups.
The successful IMT-1 is another step forward toward fielding mature FCS equipment to Infantry Brigade Combat Teams (IBCT). This summer will see a Limited User Test (LUT) before starting to put FCS capabilities into IBCTs.
Spin Out 1 capability also includes Tactical and Urban Unattended Ground Sensors (T-UGS and U-UGS) developed byTextron [TXT] and the Non-Line of Sight Launch System (NLOS LS), developed by Netfires LLC, a Lockheed Martin [LMT]-Raytheon [RTN] joint venture. The Army also accelerated the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) developed byiRobot [IRBT] and the Honeywell [HON] Class 1 Unmanned Air Vehicle.
The integration of the FCS modernization effort is overseen by the Future Force Integration Directorate (FFID) at Ft. Bliss, part of the Capabilities Integration Center under Training and Doctrine Command.
FFID integrates the FCS efforts with doctrine and training as part of Army transformation to provide FCS-enabled modular brigades for joint commanders beginning in FY 2011 with the IBCTs and moving to an FBCT at full operational capability in 2017.