Soldiers with the Future Force Warrior Program storm a building following a Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle outfitted with a camera and infrared technology, giving the troops real-time intelligence before they enter a building.

A group of Fort Bliss soldiers is likely to provide the ringing endorsements that some believe will protect a massive and costly technological makeover of the nation’s Army intended to make soldiers more lethal and help them survive the fight.

The Army Evaluation Task Force, or AETF, was recently formed at Fort Bliss and will test and evaluate the equipment on the training grounds at Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range.

The $200 billion Future Combat Systems program was slated for an $800-million cut that would have had "a devastating impact on the project," said Dennis Muilenburg, FCS manager for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, one of two lead civilian contractors. After summerlong negotiations, the cut was reduced to $200 million.

"We should expect that to occur every year, just due to the size of the program," Muilenburg said of the budget battle in Congress. "The continuing response from the soldiers about the operational benefits (of FCS) will continue to defend the program."

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said the program would be seriously damaged by further cuts. His support for FCS was cemented, Reyes said, by the endorsements of soldiers who participated in the initial testing at White Sands. He said he plans to bring in skeptical lawmakers to view the AETF activities.

"We are going to have many opportunities for VIP visitors to view what’s going on," Muilenburg said, adding that there will be no disruption of testing. "What they see when they go there will be the real thing."

When Gen. Richard Cody, Army vice chief of staff, visited El Paso recently for a symposium on Army transformation, he also said the program would be seriously harmed by further cuts. Current cuts will not cause any of the projects to be cancelled, but the equipment will reach soldiers in the field at later dates in some cases, Muilenburg said.

The Army has shown an unflagging commitment to FCS, said Maj. Gen. Charles Cartwright, the Army’s FCS program manager, adding that top Army officials have said they will find ways internally to fill the funding gap.

"We’re going to work on it through December and probably January, and we’ll go ahead and lock this down," Cartwright said. Asked if it will make up the $200 million, he said, "We’ll see, it won’t be the full amount."

Cody, in his talk at the symposium, said, "The Army is on track to put the Future Combat System spinouts into the fighting units in (fiscal year) 2010 and their precursors are already there now. FCS is the core of our modernization and transformation strategy and is an essential part of what it takes to restore this Army that has been at war for six years back into balance.

"It must be a national imperative and a national priority for us."

Cartwright said both Secretary of the Army Pete Geren and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey have made it clear there should be no interruption of the first spinoff round — which sends tested equipment into production so it can be shipped to soldiers in the field — or the first manned vehicle, which is a non-line-of-sight cannon.

That means a busy 2008 for the AETF at Fort Bliss and White Sands Missile Range.

AETF soldiers are providing valuable feedback already as they train, Muilenburg said. Simulators, created from existing equipment at Fort Bliss that provide a "wrap-around visual environment," have been loaded with the same software that will be used in the FCS systems, Cartwright said. That means the Army is able to begin developing and adjusting training routines even as the first soldiers log onto the system.

Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees at Fort Bliss are being equipped with "B-kits" that connect them to the new broadband wireless communication system that will provide the nerve system connecting all the elements — from unmanned electronic observation to individual soldiers with earpieces to pilots flying over the battlefield. Those vehicles will be "stand-ins" for the newer vehicles that will take their places as development proceeds.

The wireless communication system also has successfully completed initial tests that indicate it will be able to simultaneously transmit high volumes of voice, data and video in troublesome terrain, Muilenburg said, adding "The more important step is getting it to work in the field."

Final prototypes of small unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, tactical and urban sensors that provide electronic eyes and ears, and the non-line-of-sight launch system — known as the box of rockets — all are in the process of being delivered to Fort Bliss, Muilenburg said.

A joint exercise in April, to be repeated every two years, will involve Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force, Muilenburg said. It will involve military bases across the nation by combining computer simulation with actual ground and air maneuvers, he said, which includes both F-18 fighter jets and Apache helicopters.

"FCS will be the primary ground component," he said. "It will demonstrate the progress of the program."

Production of some of the equipment will begin in 2009, Muilenburg said, with that gear reaching soldiers in the field by 2010.

Despite the advantage represented by FCS equipment, some have warned of depending too much on technology, an issue Secretary of the Army Geren addressed in his speech to symposium attendees, many of whom were working on FCS programs.

"On the ground we’ve seen relatively primitive technology prove to be the bane of the world’s most technologically advanced military," Geren said, "with garage door openers and cell phones triggering explosions that have killed more soldiers and destroyed more Bradleys and tanks than we’ve lost in all the conflicts in the last 30 years.

"And (it poses) a similar threat to the most revolutionary technologies even though still on the drawing boards in our world’s most advanced military powers, including ours."

But Geren added, "In the Army we say we’ve got to have full-spectrum readiness. The Future Combat System is a part of that full-spectrum readiness."

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