Future Combat Systems Team Successfully Completes Major Engineering Phase

Boeing Company, ST. LOUIS: Boeing and partner Science Applications International Corporation, lead systems integrator for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, have successfully completed a weeklong system-of-systems technical review of FCS requirements, designs and tests, capping the program's first of four major engineering phases. 
 
The Engineering Maturity 1 (EM1) review was completed one month ahead of schedule at FCS program headquarters in St. Louis. 
 
“EM1 is a crucial milestone for the FCS program that demonstrates we have sufficient design maturity to proceed toward the System-of-Systems Preliminary Design Review in early 2009,” said Dennis Muilenburg, vice president-general manager, Boeing Combat Systems and FCS program manager. “Successful completion of EM1 is a tremendous accomplishment for the FCS One Team and an important measure of our technical success as we begin delivering Spin Out 1 capabilities to the Army Evaluation Task Force for testing.” 
 
Participants, many of whom joined virtually from more than 20 locations across the country, included representatives from the Army's FCS Brigade Combat Team program office, Training and Doctrine Command, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Government Accountability Office. 
 
EM1 examined initial FCS system designs, functional and performance analyses, software and hardware maturation, Spin Out 1 deliveries, and progress in experimentation and testing since the Initial Preliminary Design Review in August 2006. Final design concepts will be presented during individual system-level Preliminary Design Reviews over the next year and later assessed during the System-of-Systems Preliminary Design Review in early 2009 to confirm they can proceed to final detail design and testing. 
 
“The EM1 event is a tremendous testament to the efforts of FCS One Team members who have worked diligently to keep the program on track,” said Dan Zanini, SAIC senior vice president and FCS deputy program manager. “Now that EM1 is behind us, the focus will continue to be on execution as we prepare for Spin Out 1 deliveries and the start of field testing in 2008.”  
 
SAIC is a leading provider of scientific, engineering, systems integration and technical services and solutions to all branches of the U.S. military, agencies of the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other U.S. Government civil agencies, as well as to customers in selected commercial markets. With more than 44,000 employees in over 150 cities worldwide, SAIC had annual revenues of $8.3 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2007. 
 
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $32.4 billion business with 72,000 employees worldwide.