<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/31/opinion/31thu1.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print&position=>
The New York Times March 31, 2005 EDITORIAL A Science-Fiction Army ne frustrating thing about futuristic weapons is that the future does not always turn out the way people expected at the start of the decades it takes to design, develop and produce them. As a result, America's armed forces too often end up with enormous shares of their overall budgets committed to expensive toys that have little practical combat use - at the expense of more prosaic but real needs like enlistment bonuses or better armor for Humvees exposed to rocket-propelled grenades. That sorry pattern now threatens to play itself out over the Army's stubborn commitment to the ultra-high-technology complex of weapons, robots and communications networks known collectively as Future Combat Systems. The original vision of a light and highly mobile force that could do with less armor because it would have more advanced information about enemy movements is more suitable to battles against recognizable, conventional forces on relatively open terrain than in the new world ushered in by 9/11 and the war in Iraq. The United States entered that era with Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon wedded to the concept of deploying military forces rapidly, winning swiftly with technological wizardry and then departing just as rapidly. Instead, the Iraq war has turned into an indefinitely prolonged campaign against hit-and-run insurgents who melt in and out of cities and villages and fire rocket-propelled grenades that make armored vehicles a life-and-death need. This kind of combat seems far more likely to characterize America's wars than set-piece battles like those of the 1991 Gulf war or the first three weeks of the Iraq invasion. The Army needs more armor, not less. Greater mobility and highly advanced radio networks are fine, but not at the cost of leaving American soldiers more exposed to lethal dangers. In addition, the Future Combat program depends on unacceptably expensive technologies so experimental that the Army is having trouble making them work. So far, 52 of the system's 53 crucial technologies remain unproven, including any workable plan for making tanks light enough to airlift. Meanwhile, projected costs for just the first phase of the program have soared as high as $145 billion, not counting another $25 billion for the communications network that will make it function. That kind of money cannot be found without cutting into more pressing defense needs. Lawmakers, including traditional Republican supporters of Pentagon spending, are rightly beginning to ask hard questions. Mr. Rumsfeld has been a persistent advocate of lighter, more mobile ground forces, but now he needs to recognize that the Future Combat Systems must be radically scaled back. That will provoke howls from the Army brass and companies like Boeing. If Mr. Rumsfeld is reluctant to take them on, Congress needs to stiffen his spine. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. 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