Armor: June 2, 2004

Archives

The U.S. Army, while eager to design and build its new, twenty ton, FCS (Future Combat System) tank, it was reminded in Iraq that the current 65 ton M-1 tank still rules the battlefield. As a result, the current plan is now to keep the M-1 in service until at least  2030. This means that there will be more upgrades for the M-1, including anti-missile systems (using electronic signals, lasers, smoke and whatever works) and battlefield Internet capability. The FSC is seen as too ambitious, depending on too many technologies that are still in the lab, and may never make it to the battlefield, or at least not in the next decade or so.