Son of crusader: future combat vehicles will fall short of preferred weight.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: UPFRONT

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- "Future Combat Systems 20-ton cannon in 2008: fact or fiction?" an artillery officer asked in a 2003 military journal.

The answer four years later is "fiction."

Officials working on the Army modernization program admitted that they will not reach the preferred weight for the FCS family of combat vehicles.

"Will we get to 20 tons? I don't see that happening," Pad Rogers, executive director of the Army's tank automotive research and development and engineering center, said at a National Defense Industrial Association science and technology conference.

The higher the weight of the vehicles, the fewer options commanders will have to transport brigades to distant battlefields on short notice.

The non-line-of-sight cannon is one of the eight systems that will sit atop a common chassis. FCS plans currently call for the long-range artillery vehicle to be the first to reach combat brigades for evaluation.

The manned vehicles are currently seven to nine tons over the preferred 20-ton mark, according to a Government Accountability Office report. The report identified armor as the main factor adding weight to the vehicles. That number may be whittled down, Rogers said. TARDEC is working on breakthrough armor technologies, he said. The system will provide all the protection specified in the requirements documents for the two-soldier crews operating the vehicles, he added.

"I think we will get to the protection levels necessary to meet the FCS requirement, and the weight goal will always be a challenge. You always want something lighter," he added.

Along with the cannon, the common chassis will be used for the non-line-of-sight mortar, the mounted combat system, and vehicles designed to carry infantry, perform reconnaissance and surveillance, medical missions, command and control and maintenance.

Original plans called for the cannon to be transported on a C-130 aircraft. Maj. Charles J. Emerson, writing in Field Artillery magazine in 2003, asked, "Can a modern automated artillery piece (FCS cannon) be created under 20 tons?" The cancelled Crusader program came in at 40 tons, he noted.

Protection for the crew is a large part of the answer, he suggested. Unlike artillery pieces of old, the FCS concept of operations calls for the NLOS-cannon to keep pace on the battlefield with Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, which require heavy armor to protect occupants.

Lighter, more advanced armor "will play a big part in the FCS family...