Senior Army officials told reporters Thursday they do not expect the ongoing pandemic to delay initial fielding of any major modernization systems, with mitigation plans in place to make up for likely test and evaluation delays in the near-term. “There may be some slips in some key decisions and some soldier touchpoints. What I believe is the most important thing is when we promised our soldiers we would deliver that capability. And when you look at it from that standpoint, we can make up the time that we’ve lost,” said Gen. Mike Murray, head of the modernization-focused Futures Command. “For every individual program there’s little places where we’re massaging and working to make up that time. We have been successful, given what we know today, across all the priority programs.” While the Army is on track to meet its planned first unit equipped dates, Murray did confirm the a limited user test for the IBCS future air and missile defense command system has been pushed from this spring to late summer or early fall and the service expects a six-week delay in accepting Next-Generation Squad Weapon prototypes from the three competitors.
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