If one programme epitomises the transformation within Boeing over the past two years it is the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS). Boeing, teamed with SAIC as the lead systems integrator (LSI), has overall responsibility for a $14.9 billion development programme that spans 18 different platforms, of which only four could be considered aerospace products in the traditional sense.
"We believe one of the reasons we won FCS was that we didn't propose hardware or platform solutions," says Roger Krone, senior vice-president Army Systems. "We proposed a network-centric solution, at the heart of which was this scalable mobile network with broadband capability that then expanded out to 18 different platforms. They were all made subservient to the network rather than trying to retrofit a tank to talk to the network."
The Boeing/SAIC team will act much like a general contractor, seeking out the best that industry can offer, and plans to issue up to 23 different requests for proposals. Boeing is not precluded from bidding, but recognises its limitations. "We didn't ever want to be in the tank business, or the truck or dismounted soldier business for that matter," says Krone. Responsibility for the armoured-vehicle family will be spit between General Dynamics and United Defense, and competition for the sensors will be left to the likes of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.
"A lot of what we do is software co-ordination, all of the C4ISR [command, control, communications and computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] software, system engineering, business and supplier management, running all the tests, operational and system analysis, modelling, functional simulation and co-ordinating what everyone else does," says Krone.
The communications backbone of FCS will be the Cluster 1 Joint Tactical Radio System, development of which is being led by Boeing with Rockwell Collins and BAE Systems. It will have 24 different programmable waveforms, including a new wideband network. Bandwidth will be critical, particularly for hooking the soldier on the ground up to the four classes of unmanned air vehicle and unmanned ground vehicles planned for FCS.
In May, the Pentagon gave the Boeing/ SAIC team the green light to transition from concept demonstration to full-scale development, extending over the next seven years and representing one of IDS's largest programmes. "Two years ago the army viewed Boeing as a helicopter company," says Krone. "Now we're seen as a LSI helping transform the army into the Objective Force. We're much more of a green company than we ever have been."
Source: Flight International
