Army news service (April 5, 2005): Army announces business restructuring of the FCS program.

After two months of review, Secretary of the Army Dr. Francis J. Harvey today announced a restructuring of the business aspects of the Future Combat Systems program. The changes are comprehensive and include contractual, programmatic, and managerial improvements.

The improvements will formally link the FCS program to the Army Modular Force Initiative through a Future Combat Force Strategy that establishes a framework for the continuous progression of the current modular force into the future one. The Future Combat Force Strategy provides for the spiraling of FCS-based technologies into the current modular force; integration of current combat lessons in areas of doctrine, organization, equipment, and other key elements, and into the force; and eventual incorporation of advanced manned combat platforms developed in the FCS program.

Harvey directed that the current FCS Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) with the lead system integrator (The Boeing Co./SAIC) be changed from an OTA to a Federal Acquisition Regulation-based contract that would include the Truth in Negotiations Act, the Procurement Integrity Act, Cost Accountability Standards, and an Organizational Conflicts of Interest clause.

"The OTA was appropriate for the earlier phases of FCS, but with the implementation of the Army Modular Force Initiative and last summer's programmatic restructuring of the FCS program, we need a contractual arrangement that best ensures FCS is properly positioned in the Modular Force and that its technologies are spiraled in as soon as possible," Harvey said.

To ensure the management approach is fully aligned with Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker's policy decision last year to programmatically restructure FCS, Harvey also directed the establishment of the Army Modular Force Integration Office to ensure that technologies are spiraled into the current force as soon as they are ready, and integration and coordination of the program with co-evolution of joint warfighting doctrine and the Army's emerging global communication and information infrastructure. The Acting Under Secretary of the Army, Raymond Dubois, and the Army Vice Chief of Staff, General Richard Cody, will oversee this office.

Harvey and Schoomaker will conduct an in-depth review of the program a minimum of three times a year. Harvey, in close consultation with Schoomaker, will also serve as the Army lead for all major changes to the program.

As an additional oversight measure, the Army Audit Agency, the Army Science Board, and an outside panel of advisors will conduct periodic independent cost, schedule, and technical viability assessments.