Army tests cannon for FCS Mounted Combat System.

The lightweight Future Combat Systems XM-360 120mm cannon--designed to sit atop the new Mounted Combat System--was test-fired in Aberdeen, Md., Jan. 22.

The XM-1202 Mounted Combat System is one of eight new vehicle types that the Army is developing through its FCS modernization program. The FCS vehicles will be lighter and more mobile than current Army combat vehicles; yet officials promise they will have greater lethality and survivability.

Lighter and more survivable vehicles are required to combat a growing array of new and more sophisticated threats, officials said. Greater speed and mobility, coupled with better surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, can enhance operational effectiveness, while improving survivability, they said.

Composite FCS armor, for instance, which is being developed at Aberdeen, provides better armor protection at significantly less mass and weight.

Maj. Cliff Calhoun, assistant product manager for the Mounted Combat System, said the test-firing is one of several that would occur over a few days that would bring the total number of firing trials for the cannon to 1,000. The weapon, he said, is significant because it is as powerful as the one mounted on the M1-A2 Abrams tank--also a 120mm gun--but comes in with significant savings in weight and provides automation that will help prevent the loss of lives.

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"The Mounted Combat System is going to feature an automatic ammunition-handling system," Calhoun explained. "Our current force Abrams has a crew of four men--a gunner, tank commander, driver and loader. On the MCS, there's a crew of three men--an automated loader takes care of that loading function. Coupled with other FCS technology, the MCS will also bring beyond-line-of-sight capability to the battlefield," Calhoun said.

"In the current force, a tank can engage everything it can see out to about three kilometers--if you can see it you can engage it," he said. "With the MCS, you are going to be able to--through the network--engage targets beyond line-of-sight."

--C. Todd Lopez, ARNEWS