U.S. Army officials are in the early stages of discussing foreign military sales and international collaboration on the service’s most ambitious modernization program.

Like all Army programs, the Future Combat Systems, a network of 18 manned and unmanned systems, is designed to respond to the service’s requirements, and not overtly to foreign military demands. But the Army’s Security Assistance Command has been involved in FCS for the past several years to anticipate foreign military sales and government-to-government collaboration.

Unlike the multi-service, multi-national joint strike fighter program, FCS was not designed with several participating nations in mind, said Lt. Col. John Hinds, who works in the office of the program manager for unit-of-action technologies at Fort Belvoir, Va.

But several nations have expressed interest in buying FCS platforms once they are developed, officials said.

Since the $120 billion plus program is in its beginning stages, the possibility of foreign military sales is “still on the drawing board,” said Kevork Juskalian, a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor in the PM UA-T office. FCS program officials recently had to iron out oversight problems in the contract with Boeing, the prime contractor. The program also is likely to face a series of technology and timeline hurdles.

Several U.S. coalition partners, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and France, are in the process of developing their own future force programs. The most significant step this year will be to sign technology-partnering agreements with the United Kingdom and Australia, said Juskalian.

The U.S. Army and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency signed an agreement with Singapore last year to conduct experiments, and develop land warfare concepts and technology. These agreements ultimately are aimed at establishing interoperability with coalition partners and are not necessarily intended to spur FCS sales abroad, said Neil Baumgardner, who works for Boeing’s FCS international business development office. “We are in agreement that we are a long way away before foreign military sales of individual platforms will take place,” he said. “It is our understanding that the U.S. government is still reviewing the implications of FCS and potential foreign military sales.”

Boeing and SAIC Corp. are the system integrators. Boeing accepts proposals from foreign companies, but all those are subject to State Department technology transfer regulations, said Baumgardner.

Boeing, through its FCS international business development office, is marketing the system-of-systems common operating environment. But as discussions are taking place on how to communicate and work with U.S. allies, the backbone for FCS communications now is suffering a serious setback. The joint tactical radio system, known as JTRS, is experiencing delays and is undergoing a management shakeup.

Apart from JTRS, there are a series of other challenges in developing FCS technology, said Murphy, a senior engineer in the PM UA-T office. FCS vehicles have to be transportable in the Air Force’s C-130 cargo planes, and have to be able to be dropped from the air.

Roxana Tiron, NDM
07.06.2005