Free Custom «What the army should do with the future combat System program» Essay Paper

The American military has been instrumental in putting the country at the top in world dominance. It was the involvement of the American army that put a definitive end to world war two. Since then, the American army has intervened in numerous other international crises to bring peace. Some of the places, where the Army has intervened include; Korea (1950-1953), Vietnam (1965-1973), Afghanistan (1979), Iraq (1991 & 2003), and Afghanistan (Powell, 1996).

All the time the army was intervening in the places mentioned it did so to protect American interests. The army of yester years was one where soldiers were forced to enlist by law. Older citizens can remember the hot 1960s where the American public was involved in escaping from being drafted into the army. Draft card burning was the order among rebellious students then. In 1992, when Bill Clinton was running for the presidency, he was accused of being a draft dodger. Since then the army has undergone various changes. All the servicemen and officers are voluntary enlistees, and the army has grown technologically (Powell, 1996). Beginning 2003 the army began to have thoughts of restructuring. In the said year, it came up with the future combat system program. This is a program aimed at completely transforming the army. The program wants to change the army into a lighter and efficient unit. The program also aims at making modern weapons like the Non light field canon. The army has also partnered with the private firm Boeing, to come up with the necessary military weapons for this project. The army, in the FCS program, wants to spend 63 billion dollars to improve its communication system.

 

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In short, the army wants to integrate communication, technology and personnel into one seamless entity that is going to make the military unbeatable in the future. The future combat system was to begin in 2003. Since then the program has been under investigation in congress. A congressional committee was established to assess the progress or the army in the implementation of this program. The committee was also to evaluate the feasibility of the FCS. The report of the congressional committee states that the implementation of the FCS program was found to be too expensive. Also, the government’s Accountability office found the implementation of the FCS program to be problematic. The army then should reconsider revising some of its plans concerning the FCs program (GAO, 2008).

First, the army should consider putting more vigorous efforts in ensuring that the FCS 44 key technologies program, goes beyond the take off stage. This is because the program is still halfway and is relatively immature for a project that begun in 2003.This is because the FCS 44 technologies are essential to the realization of the FCs program. If the army does not act swiftly to bring the program to maturity, then the entire FCS program will have been ruined, and billions of dollars will have gone down the drain (GAO, 2008).

The army should also synchronize complementary programs made to augment the FCS. This is because the GAO report found out that the complementary requirements meant to facilitate FCS to run smoothly and face their own problems. It has been found that some of thecomplementary programs are facing financial and technical problems. For example, the JTRS-the Joint Tactical Radio System that is critical to the success of FCS is currently underfunded and cannot kickoff. The warfighter information network Tactical (WIN-T) that is also central to FCS has had to undergo several reconstructions (GAO, 2008).

The army should decide what the second half of FCS is. This is because the GAO report found that the army was still quite ambitious in defining what the second half of FCS is going to be and what the army will do about it. Thus the FCS is in preliminary design and only one year is left before it enters Critical design. With the actual production set to begin in 2013, everything should be clearly defined because time has run out (Warner, 2006).

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The FCS program is one that is going to solidify the army’s position at the top globally. The army should work nonstop to ensure that the program is implemented. The major reason being countries like China and Japan are coming up militarily. The army should not let itself be outdone by the armies of other nations like the education sector is currently doing.