By Ann Roosevelt
In December, a Milestone C initial production review will be held for the Non-Line of Sight Cannon (NLOS-C), the first of the manned ground vehicles planned for the Army Future Combat System (FCS), officials said.
The 155mm auto-loading cannon NLOS-C prototype, built by BAE Systems, is teamed with General Dynamics [GD] to produce eight manned ground vehicles for the Army FCS program managed by Boeing [BA] andSAIC [SAI].
“We have a milestone coming up in December, for what we call ‘special interest’ programs, for the first six of 18 prototype cannon,” Gregg Martin, Boeing vice president and FCS program manager, told Defense Daily in a recent interview. “We’ve already started long-lead procurement for that. They get delivered in 2010 and so we needed the long-lead delivery of parts of that. That’s the first kind of procurement call–in budget speak procurement relates to production–we’ve started that.”
The delivery of the first NLOS-C prototype at the Army birthday at the Pentagon and six successive firings in late September led to the Milestone C in December for the first 18 cannon, Martin said.
Maj. Gen. Charles Cartwright, program manager FCS (BCT), said NLOS-C testing is now working on shooting accuracy.
Additionally, along with other prototypes, NLOS-C now has its Experimental identification: XM1203. When the program moves to production, the “X” is removed, and the cannon will become the M1203.
All 18 cannons will go the Army Evaluation Task Force at Ft. Bliss, Texas, which evaluates the new equipment and ensures that associated doctrine, organization, training, and other elements are ready for the correct integration of the cannon into fielded units. This is overseen by the Army Capabilities Integration Center through the Future Force Integration Directorate, also located at Ft. Bliss.
For fiscal year 2009, the Army for the first time requested $110 million for NLOS-C production vehicles. The budget request provided for manufacturing and assembly of the initial six NLOS-C platforms to be fielded in FY 2010. It also procures the long-lead items needed for the second increment of platforms. Another $90 million was requested for research, development, test and evaluation for the cannon.
Congress has long supported the cannon and insulated it from the larger FCS funding and schedule issues to ensure fielding and schedule to ensure fielding (Defense Daily, Oct. 13, 2006).
The NLOS-C is a replacement for the Crusader, also a BAE vehicle, terminated in 2002 by the Army as a Cold War system. However, technology advances and knowledge gained in developing Crusader benefited NLOS-C development.
The cannon is also testing the chassis and technology elements that will be common to all manned ground vehicles.
“The NLOS Cannon has always been the lead for the manned ground vehicles, so all the critical technologies we’re looking at–the common chassis and the like–we’re working through that systems bit–drive systems, propulsion, all of that,” Dan Zanini, deputy program manager FCS and senior vice president SAIC, said.