U.S. Army official sees key programs on target

WASHINGTON, Oct 21, 2002 Reuters reported that,The U.S. Army's acquisitions chief on Monday said he was pressing to deploy the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) on schedule in 2008, despite a recommendation to delay it by two years.

"We're pushing to keep the dates the way they are and I'm firmly convinced we can make those dates," Claude Bolton, assistant Army secretary for acquisitions, logistics and technology, told reporters.

"Failure is not an option. We need to get to an Objective Force," he said, adding that FCS was imperative to the Army's effort to modernize the way it trains, equips and fights.

He said he expected top Pentagon leaders to give a "thumbs up" in the near future to the first block of contracts under the FCS, a network of weapons, sensors and robots. Boeing Co. and Science Applications International Corp. are acting as lead systems integrators.

The next milestone for the program would be in the spring of 2003, he said.

Bolton acknowledged a proposal by Stephen Cambone, the Pentagon's director of defense program analysis and evaluation, to trim more than $10 billion from the 2004-2009 defense budget by delaying FCS and reducing planned purchases of RAH-66 Comanche helicopters and Stryker combat vehicles.

He said Defense Undersecretary Edward Aldridge, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, had signed a memorandum last week approving a plan to purchase 650 missile-armed Comanche helicopters, built by Boeing and United Technologies Corp.'s Sikorsky Aircraft.

This was fewer than the 1,213 helicopters the Army initially planned, and less than the 819 the Army now viewed as its absolute requirement, he said.

But Bolton described the Comanches as the "centerpiece of Army aviation," and said Aldridge had agreed to revisit the issue of how many helicopters were needed in spring 2006.

"I think that's exactly the right thing to do," he said. "It will give us a chance to see how (Comanche) fits" into the Army's forces, he added.

Besides, he said, that would still give the Army time to purchase additional Comanche helicopters if approved.

STRYKER ON TRACK

Bolton said the Army's plan build six brigades of the Stryker, an eight-wheeled combat vehicle being built by a joint venture of General Motors Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. , was still on track, to his knowledge.

Cambone had proposed halving the number of Stryker brigades to save some $4 billion.

But Bolton and other Army officials are fighting to maintain full funding for Stryker, which was designed to help transform the Army into a lighter, more mobile force.

The vehicles were to be sent into battle aboard military cargo planes, protecting U.S. forces until larger, heavier tanks arrived by sea or land.

Bolton said the Stryker brigades were critical to ensuring future readiness of Army troops for combat.

"All six (brigades) are moving forward," he said.

Defense officials are drafting a budget proposal for fiscal 2004, which will be sent to President George W. Bush for consideration later this year.

No final decisions have been made on the Pentagon budget, defense officials said.

The Senate last week gave final congressional approval to a $355.1 billion military spending bill includes $915 million to continue development of the Comanche helicopters and $788 million for Stryker vehicles.