UGVs in future combat systems

The Army and Office of the Secretary of Defense agreed in May 2003 that the Future Combat Systems (FCS) Program had achieved sufficient maturity to pass what is referred to as "Milestone B." This milestone cleared the way for the Army and DARPA to award Boeing/SAIC FCS Lead System Integrator a 7 year System Design and Development Contract with options leading to production of systems and a Fielded Operational Capability in the year 2012. The breadth of the FCS Program is unique for DoD. It encompasses at least 7 variants of manned ground vehicles, 6 variants of unmanned ground vehicles, 4 unmanned aerial vehicles, unattended sensors, and the critical integration of these assets through a common Command/Control/Communications (C4ISR) backbone and protocol. As such, it has both internal program developments and strong linkages with existing programs in weapons, communications, sensors, command and control, and soldier integrated systems. An important new capability area for FCS is the integrated use of Unmanned Systems (both air and ground). This paper will deal with the LSI efforts associated with the UGV systems and additional detail will be available from the contractor teams working with us on each of these systems in later talks.