Office to manage former FCS efforts - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Office to manage former FCS efforts

The Army is standing up a new program executive office to oversee its Brigade Combat Team Modernization, formerly known as Future Combat Systems.

The new command will become active soon after fiscal 2010 begins, but “we haven’t quite decided on the name of the [program executive office],” Paul Mehney, spokesman for the BCTM effort said.

The Army embarked on the FCS effort a decade ago. Over the years, the program’s price tag grew to $160 billion, making it a target for budget cuts. In April, the Army restructured the program into the BCTM effort in response to a decision by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to kill the 27-ton Manned Ground Vehicles portion of the FCS program in the fiscal 2010 defense budget.

The new PEO will be in charge of all the capabilities being developed, such as the Non Line of Sight Launch System and unattended ground sensors. It will manage the new Ground Combat Vehicle concept officials hope will modernize the service’s fleet of 16,000 combat vehicles.