Army secretary defends program to upgrade combat systems

Amid mounting congressional challenges to the Army's Future Combat Systems, Army Secretary Francis Harvey on Friday defended the ambitious procurement program, arguing that it is meeting cost, schedule and performance goals.

"As far as I'm concerned, we continue to perform," Harvey said at a breakfast with reporters. Earlier this week, the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee voted unanimously to strip $325 million from the Pentagon's $3.9 billion budget request for FCS, largely because of management and cost concerns.

In a move that could be even more devastating for the program, panel members also voted to insert language into the fiscal 2007 defense authorization bill that would require Pentagon officials to make a decision to proceed with FCS in September 2008.

Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee Chairman Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said he doubted the Army could afford the entire $200 billion program, while also paying to transform the force into a more flexible brigade-based structure and repairing equipment damaged in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Harvey on Friday stressed that major cuts would delay FCS, a system of 18 manned and unmanned air and land platforms tied together by a complex network. The Army plans to field portions of the so-called "system of systems" over the next decade.

"We want this program fully funded," Harvey said. "This is very important to the future of the Army." Indeed, he said, the service needs FCS to be "relevant and ready" for the future. House Armed Services Committee staff said this week that trimming the FCS fiscal 2007 budget by $325 million will have no effect on the program's schedule.

Harvey also expressed assurances that FCS, the largest technological program in the Army's history, is on track -- and is being properly managed. "I know how to manage large programs," said Harvey, who worked for Westinghouse Corp. and Duratek before taking over as Army secretary in November 2004. "I have confidence in Army leadership," he added, lauding the program's military leadership, as well as its industry management team of Boeing Co. and Science Applications International Corp.

After Harvey's remarks, Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., criticized the Army's program management record, citing the failures of the Comanche helicopter and the Crusader self-propelled howitzer. "The Army's record on procurement is rather dismal," said Dicks, a senior member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

That is the reason the Army went to industry to run the program, added Dicks, who represents a district heavily employed by Boeing. He added that the Army must push FCS out of research and development and start producing systems.