Development Timeline

The FCS development schedule calls for the first Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Mortar prototypes to be delivered in 2011 for testing with an FCS Army Evaluation Task Force; Low-Rate Initial Production scheduled to begin in 2014. The following timeline outlines the current development milestones demonstrating the system is on schedule.

April 2007

BAE Systems successfully fired the first round from the NLOS Mortar Firing Platform. The first shot was fired using a M931 Training round at a special NLOS Mortar test range built by BAE Systems. The successful firing was the first in a series of tests being conducted to confirm the reliability of the NLOS Mortar’s unique breech-loading system and its other advanced armament technologies that enable greater rates of fire and firing angles, as well as the ability for Soldiers to fire the weapon under armor – a capability mortar crews don’t have today.

March 2007

BAE Systems completed the first NLOS Mortar Firing Platform, which features a semi-automated, single-tube, 120-mm smoothbore turreted mortar at the company’s System Integration Facility in Minneapolis. The milestone comes only six months after BAE Systems engineers successfully delivered a FCS Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Cannon Firing Platform in September 2006.