An unmanned ground
vehicle climbs a rock wall.
and we took some tough cuts, as I’ve
explained. But further cuts would
force us to sacrifi ce capability. We’ve
looked at capabilities we might have
to cut, and we can see down the road
we’d rue the day we made those cuts.
What other financial challenges
have you faced that could have
affected modernization?
We went to Congress and explained
that our stuff coming back from
Two soldiers with an explosive ordnance
combat is just worn out. Systems,
disposal team prepare to detonate an explosive.
vehicles were showing a year’s worth
of wear for every month in theater.
We triage in theater, and then once
Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker. could. We also looked at redundancy units return, we have been running
Four years ago he decided to proceed with unmanned ground vehicles 20 brigades a year through the Army
with the Army’s transformation to a — big and small. We had a legitimate Materiel Command’s repair facilities.
modular force as we were fi ghting the need for both, but we said, “Let’s keep But we give this equipment new and
war. The fi rst to go was the 3rd Infan- the smaller one.” These unmanned improved capabilities — better sights
try Division. As units returned from systems see the bad guys before our and armor, for example. This “reset”
Iraq and changed their formation, we soldiers do. Inherent to FCS, we don’t phase costs $13 billion to $14 bil-
started bringing in the new equipment want the soldier to be the bullet catch- lion a year. Congress has understood
that makes the modular formation er. With the smaller vehicle we were the need and has given us the funds
more effective, and we have continued able to preserve the basic idea of ro- we’ve requested to accomplish this.
to spiral in new equipment. I marvel botics. All in all, yes, we compromised,
at this ability to change an organiza- but we preserved the essence of FCS. What happens to your moderniza-
tion while in the crucible of war. tion plan when you are thrown a
What if Congress asked you to cut curve ball, such as an unanticipat-
FCS has been hit by some pretty again? What if you don’t receive ed expense like MRAP?
significant cuts. How have they af- the funding you have requested for Actually, we’ve been using MRAP
fected modernization efforts? the program? for three years for special needs,
We have a number of systems, and we If the Army were asked to make fur- engineers, and explosive ordnance
have had to look at them over the past ther cuts in FCS, it would amount to disposal. Destroying IEDs is a prime
year in view of the fi scal landscape. being asked to make potentially seri- example of what we’ve been using
We made some diffi cult decisions. ous cuts that will go right into system MRAP for. It has been a part of our
For example, we said we could get by design and the network. This would strategy. But what you’re seeing is an
with fewer UAVs. We could do that cause concern. But what works in evolution of the battlefi eld. We will
because we are getting more out of the our favor, I think, is we’re honest. take this specialized vehicle and put
UAV than we originally thought we We understood the fi scal picture, our soldiers in it to help protect them
56 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2007 PHOTOS: LEFT, KIM KOMENICH/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/CORBIS; RIGHT, STEVE HARDING/US ARMY
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