By Marina Malenic
The Army this week informed Congress that it is terminating two unmanned platforms that had been part of its multibillion-dollar Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization effort.
In a letter Jan. 11 letter to lawmakers, the Army said that the Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment Countermine and Transport (MULE) “did not meet rapidly changing threats, nor meet the Army’s future mission needs.” The service will instead continue the development of the Armed Robotic Vehicle Assault (Light), incorporating technologies from the two MULE system. Lockheed Martin [LMT] was the FCS subcontractor developing the system.
The Army also announced that it has terminated development of the Northrop Grumman [NOC] Fire Scout or Class IV unmanned aerial vehicle. In the letter, Army officials said the legacy Shadow UAV, with some improvements, can meet the requirements that the Fire Scout was expected to fulfill.
In just the past two budget cycles, just over $70 million was spent on MULE development, while the Fire Scout program received nearly $110 million.
“All of these restricting steps are being taken to ensure that the Army does not lose time in providing the best possible advantages to its soldiers while remaining ever fiscally responsible to the American citizen,” the letter said.
The overall FCS effort, under development by prime contractors Boeing [BA] and SAIC [SAI], was expected to yield a new formation of manned and unmanned land and aerial vehicles, all connected by a computer network. The entire program was expected to cost approximately $160 billion.
The FCS software network remains under contract, but its funding is far from certain given the hardware terminations, according to sources familiar with the program.
“With these elements [MULE and Fire Scout] gone, there isn’t much substance left in the program,” said one congressional aide. “The Army will have spent more than $20 billion in [research and development] and have very little to show for it.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates last year directed the Army to go back to the drawing board on a new combat vehicle after terminating the FCS manned ground vehicle development effort, thereby effectively terminating the FCS program as a whole. DoD officials have also separated out several smaller FCS technology development efforts, which are now known as the Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization program.