The Army's Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Program: Background and Issues for Congress

In April 2009, then-Secretary of Defense Gates announced he intended to significantly restructure the Army s Future Combat System FCS program. The FCS was a multiyear, multibillion dollar program that had been underway since 2000 and was at the heart of the Army s transformation efforts. In lieu of the cancelled FCS manned ground vehicle MGV, the Army was directed to develop a ground combat vehicle GCV that would be relevant across the entire spectrum of Army operations and would incorporate combat lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army reissued a request for proposal RFP for the GCV on November 30, 2010, and planned to begin fielding the GCV by 2015-2017. On August 17, 2011, the GCV program was approved to enter the Technology Development Phase of the acquisition process and, a day later, the Army awarded two technology development contracts 439.7 million to the General Dynamics-led team and a second contract for 449.9 million to the BAE Systems-Northrop Grumman team. Starting in May and running through June 2012, the Army tested a number of foreign candidates during a Network Integration Exercise. This test informed the Army s Analysis of Alternatives AoA, which is a requirement before the GCV program can progress to the next developmental phase. The AoA reportedly found no suitable existing, less expensive combat vehicles that could meet the Army s GCV requirements. On January 16, 2013, the Department of Defense DOD initiated a series of major GCV program changes which, while slipping the program schedule to the right and going to a single competitor during Engineering and Manufacturing Development, could save over 4 billion from FY2014 to FY2019.