Crusader rising from the ashes.

To appease lawmakers who resisted the Pentagon's decision to cancel the Crusader cannon-artillery system, the Army assured them that the funding would be transferred to a replacement system, also manufactured by United Defense, under the Future Combat Systems program. But when the Army decided in July to delay the FCS by two years, the schedule for the Crusader replacement, called the "non-line-of-sight cannon," actually was accelerated by two years. "Congress wanted it that way," said an Army source. "They didn't want it killed or delayed." Unlike the rest of the FCS program, which is vulnerable to cutbacks, the NLOS cannon funds were "fenced off," said the source, in order to shield it from any future FCS reshuffling.