Experimental unit to test Future Combat Systems.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

The U.S. Army plans to create an experimental battalion by 2006 to test new technologies and prototypes associated with the Future Combat Systems program.

So far, the FCS exists only in digital simulations. But program supporters hope that within the next two years enough hardware will be in development for soldiers to out to the test.

"We want a small corps of soldiers that can take things from the material developer and 'shake them out,'" said Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, head of the Army Training and Doctrine Command.

For the FCS program to meet its current schedule TRADOC will need to have experimental units in place by 2006, Byrnes told a conference of the Association of the U.S. Army. The intent is to field an FCS battalion by 2010 and a brigade by 2012.

The FCS will consist of ground vehicles and aircraft all connected in a single command-and-control network. TRADOC will be "refining" the program requirements over the next several months, he said.

The experimental units will be based at TRADOC's "battle laboratories" in Fort Knox, Ky. These are high-tech facilities designed to test new warfare concepts and futuristic weapon systems. FCS technologies, said Byrnes, need to move "from simulation-based experimentation into the hands of soldiers."

By 2006, he said, "we need to have a battalion on the ground, dedicated to experimentation and training. If we can get it in 2006, we can mature the concepts aria prototypes before testing and fielding."

More stringent FCS tests will take place at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. where the Army has set up a "combined test organization."

Before the program even gets that far, it will need to pass a series of high-level Pentagon reviews in 2004. Next on the calendar is a so-called "system of systems design concept review." Then comes a "system of systems functional review." In November, the FCS will undergo another "Milestone B" review...