{"id":195889,"date":"2008-06-07T11:40:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-07T16:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/06\/07\/fcs-mgv-update\/"},"modified":"2008-06-07T11:40:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-07T16:40:00","slug":"fcs-mgv-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/06\/07\/fcs-mgv-update\/","title":{"rendered":"FCS MGV Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can get a good summary of the progress of the NLOS-C howitzer and NLOS-M mortar here<\/a>, and things seem to be proceeding well, with the tube and the autoloader performing well.<\/p>\n

Some pics of the NLOS-C:
<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

FWIW, I don’t think that the FCS MGV (F<\/span>uture C<\/span>ombat S<\/span>ystem — M<\/span>anned G<\/span>round V<\/span>ehicle) is a particularly good idea. These platforms will be more expensive than their predecessors, but lighter weight, half the weight of a Bradley, 1\/3 of the weight of an Abrams, so they will be more vulnerable to things like IEDs.<\/p>\n

The systems they contain, communications and sensors, not the hybrid drive system, do have military value, and I expect them to see service, but it’s cheaper, and to my mind more militarily advantageous to retrofit the boxes on existing systems.<\/p>\n

As to whether the military will buy any of these, I think yes, but only the NLOS-C, because the artillery folks at the military are currently using a vehicle first fielded in 1963, the M109 Paladin, and with the Crusader cancellation in the late 1990s, it’s still their turn.<\/p>\n

I don’t think that the rest will be manufactured, though the ICV (I<\/span>nfantry C<\/span>ombat V<\/span>ehicle) is in one very significant way, it carries a full infantry fire team of 9, as opposed to the Bradley’s 6, because of space freed up by making the turret remotly operated.<\/p>\n

You could retrofit a Bradley with a new turret for the same effect though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can get a good summary of the progress of the NLOS-C howitzer and NLOS-M mortar here, and things seem to be proceeding well, with the tube and the autoloader performing well. Some pics of the NLOS-C: FWIW, I don’t think that the FCS MGV (Future Combat System — Manned Ground Vehicle) is a particularly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1008,1266,1006,1025],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-procurement","category-future-combat-systems","category-military","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195889"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}