The Pentagon announced late May 13 that it had approved the U.S. Army's decision to cancel the Non-Line of Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS). There was no indication in the announcement whether the Navy would finish funding development of the program.
In the same announcement, the Defense Department also said that management responsibilities for system development and acquisition for the remainder of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) equipment would shift from the Program Executive Office (PEO) for Integration to the PEOs that already manage similar systems.
The announcement was posted to the Internet at 8 p.m. on May 13.
"A detailed analysis of alternatives determined that the NLOS-LS does not provide a cost-effective precision fire capability," it said.
The Army intends to pursue other capabilities to fulfill the operational requirement defined for NLOS-LS, it says.
Earlier in the week, the House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee transferred $75 million in research-and-development funding for the program from the Army to the Navy in its markup of the defense authorization bill for 2011. The committee said it is concerned by the Army's decision to walk away from its $1 billion investment in research and development for the system.
Analysis from the portfolio review also concluded "a reduction in the number of Excalibur and Accelerated Precision Mortar Initiative rounds was also warranted; the Secretary of the Army also recommended approval of these proposed reductions, which the Department approved as well," the statement reads.
The old FCS items are being broken up and given to the appropriate PEOs to "allow the systems to more comprehensively be evaluated as part of the capability portfolio review process."
The Network Integration Kit will be managed by PEO Command, Control and Communications Tactical. The Class I Unmanned Aerial Vehicle will be the responsibility of PEO Aviation. PEO Ground Combat Systems will manage the Ground Combat Vehicle, the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) and the Multi-mission UGV. The Unattended Ground Sensors are moving to PEO Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors.
According to the announcement, system of systems engineering, integration and testing will remain the responsibility of PEO Integration. Increment 1 equipment will still be fielded and networked as a system, said Army spokesman Paul Mehney.
He said the Ground Combat Vehicle will move to PEO Ground Combat Systems in approximately 60 days and the other systems will transition to the new PEOs in approximately three months.
"While individual systems will remain under various PEOs, PEO I will be given the expanded mission for integration across those PEOs and their associated portfolios," the statement reads. For example, rather than just integrating the Class 1 UAV into the network, PEO Integration will now ensure that all Army UAVs are fully integrated, according to the Pentagon announcement.
According to the announcement, both decisions are the result of the service's capability portfolio review process, which is being led by Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff.
"The intent of this revalidation is to eliminate redundancies and to ensure that funds are properly programmed, budgeted, and executed against the programs that yield the most value to the Army," reads the announcement.
The service is working to complete reviews of eight portfolios: tactical wheeled vehicles, precision fires, air and missile defense, radios and network, aviation, engineer mobility, combat vehicle modernization, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
The reviews reconsider requirements using criteria such as combatant commander requests, lessons from war, the ability to support the Army Force Generation model, the potential for leveraging emerging technologies and affordability, the Defense Department announcement says.
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