CBO examined alternatives to the currently planned FCS program that would eliminate all or part of the program’s ground vehicles while retaining its communications equipment and some sensors, which would reduce the program’s average annual costs to about $5 billion to $7 billion.
In these scenarios, the Army would incorporate some FCS technologies into its current fleet of armored combat vehicles and upgrade those vehicles at the same time, thereby extending their useful lives, though that route would forgo potential benefits of the capabilities currently sought.
CBO noted that that defense experts have expressed a number of reservations about the Army’s ability to implement the FCS program in its current form.
The Government Accountability Office has also criticizing the Army’s planned FCS schedule and implementation, citing concerns about technical challenges, competition for funding, the current fleet’s condition, and survivability of the FCS vehicles in a hostile environment.
Further, CBO said that while a central purpose of the FCS program is to speed the movement of combat units overseas, replacing the current armored vehicle fleet with FCS components would not significantly reduce deployment times.