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FCS will be renamed, Army says

The Army has decided that its eight-year-old flagship modernization program, the Future Combat Systems, will get a new name.

“It’s not future anymore. It is here. We are bending metal now,” said FCS spokesman Paul Meheny.

Officials at the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command have forwarded the recommended name to Gen. George Casey, U.S. Army chief of staff, who will make a decision in coming months, said Helen Lardner, deputy director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, Forward.

Several kinds of FCS gear are in testing and slated for fielding by 2008 or 2010, including the Micro Air Vehicle UAV, the Unmanned Ground Sensors and the bomb-detecting Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle. The chassis for the first 27-ton FCS Man-Ground Vehicle is being built at a BAE facility in Santa Clara, Calif. FCS computers, software-programmable radio and communications gear are being installed for testing on Bradleys, Abrams and Humvees. FCS is conducting 65 different tests in 41 states, Meheny said.

“In the late ‘90s, it was future, plus we were embarking on something the Army’s never done,” Lardner said.