The Future Combat System

A new Burke Chair report entitled The Future Combat System: What Future Can the Army Afford? examines the U.S. Army’s largest modernization effort in 50 years as cost escalation, schedule slips, and technological risks add to the increasing pressure on the program’s budget. It draws on recent government reports and industry sources to describe the challenges of the ambitious program to maintain its budget and deliver the capabilities needed by the warfighter.

This paper is part of a series of reports by the Burke Chair in Strategy that monitors the modernization and acquisition efforts of all military services, based on a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. defense budget. The individual reports can be downloaded from the CSIS Web site at:

http://www.csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/080630_fy2009_poisoned_chalice...
http://www.csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/080822_naval_equipment_acquisi...
http://www.csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/081001_aircraft_modernstudy.pd...
http://www.csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/090205_fcsarmy.pdf