Army future combat program passes technical design review

The Army's massive Future Combat Systems has successfully completed a weeklong technical design review, indicating development of the $160 billion program is on track, Army and defense industry officials announced Tuesday.

The review comes at a critical time for FCS, which has faced scrutiny from Congress and government agencies. Indeed, several Government Accountability Office studies already have questioned the Army's ability to develop and buy FCS, a system of manned and unmanned vehicles tied together by an extensive high-tech network.

GAO participated in the design review, as did representatives from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Army's Training and Doctrine Command.

The review "represents the transition from requirements to design, build, integrate and test," Maj. Gen. Charles Cartwright, the Army's program manager for the FCS Brigade Combat Team, said in a statement. "Successful completion means the days of PowerPoint slides are over."

The successful review means program officials now can focus on technology experimentation and platform and software designs, with the goal of getting the first FCS technologies into the force by 2008, said Dennis Muilenburg, FCS program manager for Boeing Co., the lead contractor.