The vice chief of the U.S. Army, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, says he expects the armed service's Future Combat Systems (FCS) to continue to come under spending scrutiny, but that the Army is working to shore up its defense of the controversial program.

"It's a huge program. It's an expensive program. It's cutting-edge technology," Chiarelli said in a Dec. 2 webcast from the Army Science Conference in Orlando, Fla. "I am sure that it and many other large defense programs will naturally become targets as people look for ways to help navigate the economic rough waters that we're all in right now. But I feel that we have ... excellent products [and] they're going to revolutionize the way we fight. But we too are going through a complete review of FCS to make sure that everything is on track and going in a direction that we can defend."

The Army's No. 2 four-star general also praised manned ground vehicles -- seen by some critics as Cold War relics -- as useful in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations in Iraq.

"I can promise you that the M1 tank had a huge role to play in a place like Sadr City," he says. "Its mere presence ... on a street corner provided a level of intimidation and provided calm in many instances."