US Army Future Combat System

[MarkSheppard]

Okay; I've been able to find the following information in a project overview of FCS that I found on DTIC.net

It's planned to get all the basic parts of FCS product finalized by 2010-2011, with production to begin in 2012; although the *complete* FCS brigade teams won't begin to be fielded until 2014.

A FCS Brigade Team will operate over a 150 x 150 km Area of Operations (at least that's what the specs for the network and C3I say; "connectivity" over that area).

There will be the following manned systems built upon the basic manned systems hull:

Base FCS Manned Hull - the first really good detailed drawing of the FCS base hull I've found.

M1206 Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV)
--2 Crew + 9 man infantry Squad
--30mm MK44 Cannon + M240C 7.62mm Coax

M1209 Command & Control Vehicle (C2V)
--2 Man Crew + 4 Man Mission Specialists

M1202 Mounted Combat System (MCS)
---120mm LW XM360 Cannon

M1201 Reconnaisance and Surveillance Vehicle (RSV)
--2 Crew + 4 Scouts
--30mm MK44 Cannon + M240C 7.62mm Coax
--5 Meter Extensible Sensor Mast

M1203 Non-Line of Sight Cannon (NLOS-C)
--2 Man Crew
--155mm L38 Cannon; 24 on board rounds; 10 RPM max and sustained fire; 4 to 6 rounds TOT at the same time.
--18.1 tons minimum, 24 tons fully equipped

M1204 Non Line of Sight Mortar (NLOS-M)
--120mm Breech Loading Mortar

M1205 FCS Recovery and Maintenance Vehicle (FRMV)
-Has Winch and tow cable, etc

M1208 Medical Vehicle Treatment (MV-T)
--Provides advanced trauma medicine and life support
--Blood refrigeration, 3D Ultrasound, quick erection shelter

M1207 Medical Vehicle Evacuation (MV-E)
--Evacuates up to 4 litters or 6 ambulatory patients

All the Manned Systems will contain the following basic technology:
--Unitary crew stations and equipment; if you can drive or shoot one vehicle, you can do them all.
--NBC and Air Conditioning (I think that's what the Environmental Control System is)
--Hybrid-Electric Drives, which can run off Lithium Ion Batteries
--Hydropneumatic Suspension
--Band Tracks
--5 liter displacement common engine
--Externally Mounted Close Combat Armament System (aka, Remote Weapon System either .50 Cal HMG or 40mm AGL)

The FCS systems will have:
• Text-based Chat (lol, u guys suck)
• Presentation Sharing (powerpoint in your vehicals)
• Whiteboard
• File Transfer
• Session Archival
• Map-based Collaboration
• Voice and Data Communication (possibly video)

Unmanned Systems:

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Non-Line of Sight Launch System (NLOS LS): (Unattended Munition Cannister; think of it like a VLS system, but for land) -- it's transported via FMTVs; and can be fired from a FMTV or from the ground. Contains 15 VLS cells (the 16th is taken up by Computers/Comms) and fires two types of missiles:

Precision Attack Missile (PAM) - 117 lbs in weight; 7" Diameter, 40-60 km range; and has a multi mode warhead; good against hard/soft targets; guidance via GPS/INS, semi-active laser homing, and autonomous imaging infrared.

Loitering Attack Missile (LAM) - 117 lbs in weight; 7" Diameter, 70 km range; 30 minute loiter time due to turbojet engine and pop out wings; can do automatic target recognition and attack targets on it's own; guidance via GPS/INS, and laser radar (LADAR) seeker with automatic target recognition.

Both can be retargeted on the fly via man in the loop systems if a more interesting target is found; or if you find out that that building is really an orphanage about 40 seconds to impact....

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Plenty of UAVs from helicopters, fixed wing, to hand held toss into air systems. It would be pointless to list them all; because the field of manpacked robotic vehicles is changing every day; suffice to say, the FCS soldier will be able to toss hand held robots into dangerous areas instead of surveilling them himself.

There will be a several families of "Big" robotic vehicles to supplement the manned vehicles:

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ARV Family:

ARV-A (Armed Robotic Vehicle - Assault)
ARV-RSTA (Armed Robotic Vehicle - Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition)

No real Specs on the ARV family except that: "The ARV incorporates a turret system capable of launching missiles such as the Common Missile or Hellfire and operating a medium caliber gun system such as the 30mm Mk 44 Chain Gun" and it is shown primarily as a wheeled system in drawings.

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MULE Family: 1 Ton maximum vehicle weight family of robotic wheeled transport vehicles; with a payload of about 600 to 800 pounds.

MULE-T (Robotic Truck)
MULE-CM (Robotic Truck with Mineplow and other stuff to defeat mines)