Future Combat Systems news stories on Newser

Gates' Laser Focus on Wars Reshapes Pentagon

Kevin Spak — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:01:51 CDT

Bush-holdover Robert Gates is using his position in the Obama administration to try to remake Washington’s biggest bureaucracy, refocusing it on the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reports. Gates has pushed the Pentagon to shift from preparing for high-tech conventional wars of the future to the...

Army to Speed High-Tech Gear Into Combat

Kevin Spak — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:33:10 CDT

The US Army has moved up the timetable for its high-tech weapons program, hoping to get new devices into the field by late 2010, 5 years ahead of its original schedule, Popular Mechanics reports. It’s also shifting focus away from conventional warfare tech like tanks and artillery and toward the...

Pentagon Big Guns Late, Way Over Budget

Sam Gale Rosen — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:46:48 CDT

Some 95 of the Pentagon's biggest weapons systems are a total of $295 billion over budget and arrive an average of 2 years late, according to the Government Accountability Office. But GAO auditors say the Pentagon is getting sloppier, not better, reports the Washington Post . "It's taking longer and costing...

Complexity of Army Software Raises Concern

Jonas Oransky — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:07:51 CST

More than 2,000 developers are working on a $200 billion software project considered the biggest Army modernization since World War II, but many worry the Boeing-led Future Combat Systems may come in late and severely flawed. FCS, which dwarfs Windows in complexity, would enable communication with hovering drones, bomb-defusing...