Meanwhile, other service activities were being triggered by decisions affecting service force structure.

As an example, in early April 2011, the Department of Defense announced a revision in the 2004 plan to withdraw two of its four BCTs from Europe.

“Based on the administration’s review, consultations with allies, and the findings of NATO’s new Strategic Concept, the department will retain three BCTs in Europe to maintain a flexible and rapidly deployable ground force to fulfill the United States’ commitments to NATO, to engage effectively with allies and partners, and to meet the broad range of 21st century challenges,” a DoD news release stated. “This decision will be implemented in 2015, when we project a reduced demand on our ground forces.

“The three BCTs remaining in Europe after 2015 – the Heavy, Stryker and Airborne BCTs – offer capabilities that enable U.S. European Command to build partner capacity and to meet interoperability objectives while supporting the full range of military operations, including collective defense of our NATO allies under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty,” the release added. “This BCT mix will be complemented by other capability enhancements, including the forward deployment of Aegis ships, land-based missile defense systems in Poland and Romania as part of the European Phased Adaptive Approach, forward-stationing of special operations aircraft, and a permanent aviation detachment in Poland. Taken together, these measures will enhance and rebalance the U.S. force posture in Europe to make it more capable, more effective, and better aligned with current and future security challenges.”

The modernization activities surrounding the Army network were accompanied by several other materiel activities, ranging from individual weapons to next-generation combat vehicles.

One of the most critical enablers to the most important combat system on the battlefield is the soldier’s weapon. And, in the case of the U.S. Army, that frequently translates to the M4 series carbine. The M4 was an outgrowth of the M16 series rifle that emerged in the early ’90s – initially to satisfy Marine Corps requirements but soon embraced by the Army (M4) and special operations communities (M4A1). Over the following years the M4/M4A1 has been provided with more than 60 different improvements, with recent activities focused on conversion of existing Army M4s to M4A1s, with heavier barrels, ambidextrous selector switches, and “full auto” selection options (versus “three-round burst” on earlier M4s).

Army leadership is committed to ensuring that American warfighters have the finest weapon on the battlefield. As a result, while continuing to credit the M4/M4A1 with good combat reviews, the Army has embarked on a “dual path” modernization strategy that could lead to the adoption of a new individual weapon.

The first path involves continuing system upgrades and completing the Authorized Acquisition Objective (AAO) purchases of the M4/M4A1.

The second path explores the possibility of a new Individual Carbine (IC). On June 29, 2011, the U.S. Army Contracting Command, Picatinny Contracting Center, on behalf of Program Manager Soldier Weapons, issued the final request for proposals for the IC competition. The effort involves multiple phases, with extensive soldier firing tests that will eventually lead into a down-selection to a single candidate weapon.

Emphasizing the critical theme of equipping the warfighter, program representatives have emphasized that any full procurement of a new weapon will be based, in part, on demonstrated benefits over the M4/M4A1.

2011 also saw significant materiel activities at the other end of the ground combat spectrum, involving the Army’s next-generation GCV Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV).

On Aug. 18, 2011, the U.S. Army Contracting Command in Warren, Mich., announced two contract awards for the technology development (TD) phase of GCV IFV to teams led by BAE Systems Land and Armaments, L.P., and General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. The 24-month TD contracts are directed at maturing the GCV proposal through the preliminary design review in anticipation of prototype builds during the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the program. Overall program goals of the GCV IFV envision the development and production of an affordable and operationally effective Infantry Fighting Vehicle in seven years. Projected GCV fielding in the 2020 time frame will replace M2A3 Bradleys, which will then likely be fielded to replace Bradley ODS-SA (Operation Desert Storm – Situational Awareness) vehicles in National Guard units.

Although an industry protest to the Government Accountability Office delayed the start of the GCV IFV TD phase, that protest was denied in early December, with both industry teams moving forward with their activities.