U.S. Army ground combat systems are becoming cold war relics: The core of the Army’s ground combat systems is under threat of being seriously outmoded by foreign adversaries like Russia, China, and North Korea, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Developed primarily in the 1970s, the Army’s fleet of main battle tanks, tracked infantry fighting vehicles, tracked self-propelled artillery and multiple launch rocket systems were designed to battle a larger Cold War adversary, a report produced by CRS explains.
“U.S. Army leadership notes for the first time since World War I that the Army does not have a new ground combat vehicle under development and, at current funding levels, the Bradley [Fighting Vehicle] and Abrams [tank] will remain in the inventory for 50 to 70 more years,” the report reads.
Efforts to modernize the Army’s artillery and armor systems have been a Sisyphean task, costing roughly $1 billion dollars a year since 1996 — representing nearly 42 percent of the Army’s research, development, testing and evaluation budget in failed and cancelled projects, according to the CRS.
