Weekly Recon: The Army's Ground Combat Deficiency, ISIS and Al Qaeda
By Blake Baiers
March 04, 2017
Good Saturday morning and welcome to Weekly Recon. On this day in 1918, The USS Cyclops departs from Barbados and is never seen again, presumably lost with all hands in the Bermuda Triangle. USS Cyclops (AC-4) was one of four Proteus-class colliers built for the United States Navy several years before World War I. Named for the Cyclops, a primordial race of giants from Greek mythology, she was the second U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. Its loss remains the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not directly involving combat.
The Army’s Ground Combat Deficiency
The first Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle rolled off the production line in York, Pennsylvania, Dec. 15, 2016. It is shown here during a demonstration shortly after roll-out.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of PEO Ground Combat Systems
In the post-9/11 era, the task of modernizing the U.S. Army’s ground combat vehicles lost out to other programs. The acquisition debacle known as the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) and Future Combat Systems (FCS) serve as prime examples. The GCV was meant to replace the aging M2 Bradley in even greater number given the GCV’s demise. Army brass is now sounding alarms about its modernization woes, but is there an institutional reason for the Army’s current malaise?
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/03/04/weekly_recon_the_armys_ground_combat_deficiency_110909.html
