By Emelie Rutherford

A House subcommittee postponed a hearing scheduled for yesterday on the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program because the panel’s chairman is sick.

The hearing will be rescheduled, though no new hearing date had been set as of Defense Daily‘s deadline yesterday. The new FCS session is unlikely to fall this week, when many congressional hearing rooms are reserved.

Army and defense-industry officials had traveled to Capitol Hill for the 3 p.m. House Armed Services Air and Land Force subcommittee hearing, which was canceled shortly before 3 p.m.

Chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) fell sick, subcommittee staff said.

Lawmakers had planned to hear from Army and Government Accountability Office (GAO) officials about their differing views on how prepared FCS is for a major milestone review this year. The Army contests several aspects of a March 12 GAO report on FCS, including assertions that it is immature technologically and in danger of running over budget.