WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army secretary said Friday that its troubled combat systems program was still on track.
Amid mounting congressional challenges to the Army's Future Combat Systems, Army Secretary Francis Harvey defended the ambitious procurement program, arguing that it is meeting cost, schedule and performance goals, CongressDaily reported.
"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, CongressDaily said.
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 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, CongressDaily said.
"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.
