U.S. Army officials continue to push for speedy production of Future Combat Systems (FCS), saying they are confident the system will save lives after observing its performance in a limited preliminary user test near Fort Bliss, Texas, in late July. Army officials tested the FCS ‘Spin Out 1’ kit during a training exercise from 27 to 31 July, operating the network of weapon systems in a mock village between White Sands Missile range and Fort Bliss. “Our recommendation from everything we’ve learned so far is these [systems] are really going to help our soldiers down range,” in Afghanistan and Iraq, said the director of the army’s Future Force Integration Directorate. FCS Spin Out 1 consists of a Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS) for precision fires; a ‘B-kit’ computer system to share imagery; unattended sensors; an aerial drone known as the Class I Block 0 Micro Air Vehicle (MAV); and a ground-based robot known as the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle. Source: [1] http://www.janes.com/news/defence/land/jdw/jdw080808_1_n.shtml