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Ongoing Army Transformation activities have presented Army planners with a number of key materiel mandates. The need to accelerate the process of getting new equipment into the hands of today's warfighter is essential.
One method of achieving this acquisition acceleration is through the Department of Defense Foreign Comparative Test (FCT) program.
The FCT program was established during the early 1990s to consolidate the testing and evaluation of foreign nondevelopmental items that demonstrate the potential to satisfy user requirements throughout the armed forces. Key program objectives of the congressionally authorized program include improving warfighting capability, accelerating equipment fielding and saving taxpayer funds.
"The norm is that program managers, who submit a proposal to this office for an FCT project, have identified Army procurement money in the out years to buy a particular item because they have an ongoing developmental program," explains Al Trawinski, International Cooperative program specialist and Army FCT team leader. "People don't just dream these projects up. There will be a requirement for something, for example, a self-destruct fuze for multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) submunitions. In this case, there is a hard and fast requirement to reduce unexploded ordnance on the battlefield. So the program manager (PM) MLRS was working with industry to develop a self-destruct fuze for these submunitions. He then identified two foreign companies that made self-destruct fuzes. Obviously, the Army is not just going to buy them without testing them. Testing costs money and that's the purpose of this program. A PM can come to us and request OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense] money to test these foreign items. If these foreign items work well in testing, they will be procured."
The annual FCT cycle begins in December with each of the armed services submitting summary proposals to the Office of Secretary of Defense. Draft proposals follow in March with final proposals submitted...