In keeping with his plan to address the challenges of irregular warfare, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced in April 2009 that all eight manned vehicle programs of the Army’s long-running Future Combat Systems (FCS) program were cancelled and much of the rest of the project would be reconsidered for funding. The FCS program has been rebranded as the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) Modernization program, which the Pentagon promises will continue to be a boon to unmanned systems programs already being developed under FCS. In fact, the deployment of many unmanned systems programs will be wider under the BCT Modernization program than under FCS, and therefore there promises to be opportunities for solution providers that deliver technology and services to support the development and deployment of functional small unmanned ground vehicles (SUGVs) and multifunction utility/logistics and equipment (MULE) vehicles.