By Antonio Gil Morales AGIF
As Defense Secretary Robert Gates pulls the plug on the Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) program (Army stops work on Boeings manned ground vehicles July 21) he shouldnt yank the wiring from advanced technologies developed under FCS that are essential for an effective counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
Today insurgents are better networked than our troops. They use cell phones to set up attacks and even trigger bombs whereas our soldiers have only limited connectivity through satellites and radios. In order to make them safer and more effective we must better connect our troops.
Future Combat Systems would have networked the entire fighting force. Its electric-powered armored vehicles would have served as the mobile nodes of a mobile broadband Internet-based network that could have put every platoon on patrol a click away from intelligence satellite maps and communication with the entire force. In the deadly information war against insurgents intelligence flexibility and speed are often the difference between victory and casualties.
Even though the FCS program has been canceled the Army should preserve key technologies and make the best use of the significant design and development work already accomplished. Congress should save the FCS network and deliver it to our troops as soon as possible.
ANTONIO GIL MORALES Immediate-Past National Commander American GI Forum of the United States Fort Worth Texas
