Fire Control Repairer

You are the new set of hands on the fire control bench. The tank commander in the field does not know your name yet — but if the Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer you touched last week blacks out during a live-fire, he will learn it fast.

You came out of 26 weeks of AIT at Aberdeen Proving Ground and now you work in a Direct Support (DS) maintenance shop attached to a Heavy Brigade Combat Team or an Armored BCT. Your day is PMCS on fire control components, bench-testing laser rangefinder assemblies, cleaning thermal optic windows and boresighting sights, and handing tools to the senior 91G while you watch how he works. You pull Technical Manual (TM) procedures one step at a time and you do not deviate. The gear you touch — Abrams CITV, GPS, Commander's Control Panel, Bradley IBAS stabilization unit — is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a component and keeps a $10 million tank in the fight. You break something by improvising; you do not improvise.

• 01Perform before/during/after PMCS on M1A2 Abrams fire control components per TM 9-2350-294 series — CITV, gunner's primary sight (GPS), commander's independent thermal viewer, laser rangefinder: clean optical surfaces, check boresight, verify reticle alignment.
• 02Use a digital multimeter and oscilloscope to verify power and signal outputs on gunner's control assemblies — document readings against TM limits, do not interpret outside the table.
• 03Boresight the M1A2 GPS and CITV to TM standard — the procedure exists exactly because eyeballing it costs a crew a first-round hit at range.
• 04Perform bench-level fault isolation on M2/M3 Bradley Improved Bradley Acquisition System (IBAS) components using the applicable TM 9-2350-294 or unit-level TM — identify faulty LRU (Line Replaceable Unit), requisition part, document fault in GCSS-Army.
• 05Open and close a GCSS-Army MRO for fire control work — fault code, LRU replaced, calibration result, labor hours, supervisor signature.
• 06Handle and store laser rangefinder assemblies per safety and hazard protocols — the Nd:YAG laser in the Abrams rangefinder is a Class IV device and eye-protection compliance is not a suggestion.

• —TM 9-2350-294 series — M1A2 Abrams tank unit and direct support maintenance manuals (your primary bench reference).
• —TM 9-2350-249 series — M2/M3 Bradley IFV unit and direct support maintenance (FCS chapters).
• —DA PAM 750-8 — The Army Maintenance Management System (TAMMS) User Manual (how every maintenance action gets documented).
• —AR 750-1 — Army Materiel Maintenance Policy (the regulation your shop operates under; read it once, reference it when the warrant asks).
• —STP 9-91G14-SM-TG — Soldier's Manual and Trainer's Guide, MOS 91G, skill levels 1-4.
• —DA PAM 750-1 — Commanders' Maintenance Handbook (your shop's management framework from the platoon leader's perspective).

• —All fire control PMCS procedures performed to TM standard — no skipped steps, no undocumented faults, no "I checked it" without a signed DA Form 5988-E.
• —Laser safety certification current — Class IV laser safety training is a hard prerequisite before touching Abrams rangefinder assemblies; your record must show it.
• —ACFT 500+ — the fire control bay does not excuse you from the formation, and the section sergeant runs PT the same way every other section does.
• —GCSS-Army MRO opened and closed cleanly for every maintenance action, within the shop's published window.
• —Zero uncontrolled handling of classified FCS software media or COMSEC-associated components — the handling procedures exist and you will follow them.

• —Skipping the TM procedure and "checking by feel." A boresight that looks close on the bench will miss the first-round hit at 1,500 meters in the field — and the crew's gunnery score is the evidence.
• —Handling laser rangefinder assemblies without eye-protection compliance. One Class IV laser event ends your career and possibly someone's vision; the safety brief is not administrative.
• —Closing an MRO in GCSS-Army with the wrong fault code because you did not look up the right one. The next sustainment-level inspection reads that work order and your shop's fix-or-fail pattern is visible.
• —Using compressed air directly on optical coatings to clean a thermal sensor window. Anti-reflective coatings are not dust; they are expensive, fragile, and the TM describes exactly how to clean them.
• —Marking a system "green" on the dispatch board before the final function check is recorded. The gunner's sight that "works fine" has your name on the maintenance record if it fails at the range.

The good cherry 91G follows the TM the way a medic follows a protocol — step by step, no improvisation, every result recorded. By month six the senior 91G sends him to the boresight lane solo because the numbers come back right. By month eighteen he is closing MROs cleanly in GCSS-Army without supervision and he knows which LRUs on the Abrams FCS are chronic fault-generators before the unit even asks.

You are the bench tech the platoon sergeant trusts to work a fault without a senior NCO standing behind you. The warrant officer hands you the deadlined tank and goes to the next problem.

You are a working technician on the fire control bench. You diagnose fault-isolated units without throwing parts — pressure-test, signal-trace, alignment-check before you requisition anything. You handle the Bradley IBAS stabilization sub-system, the Abrams CITV's thermal imager assemblies, the ballistic computer's processor cards, and the commander's control panel as individual bench items. You train the privates on tool handling and TM discipline. You start running your own section of the MRO queue in GCSS-Army and you are the soldier the shop warrant calls when the diagnostic is unclear. If you are corporal-pinned, you are the senior technical voice on your two-soldier team.

• 01Fault-isolate to the LRU level on M1A2 Abrams FCS sub-systems — GPS thermal imager, CITV, commander's control panel, laser rangefinder — using the TM fault-isolation procedure, not intuition; document every step.
• 02Perform and record ballistic computer verification checks and software load procedures per the applicable TM — a mis-loaded ballistic solution is invisible until a first-round miss at gunnery.
• 03Conduct IBAS stabilization alignment and verification on M2A3/M3A3 Bradley — torque the gyro assemblies to spec, verify stabilization self-test, document results.
• 04Use GCSS-Army at the technician level — open MROs, manage parts requisitions, track LRU exchange status, close with calibration data attached.
• 05Train junior 91Gs on optical surface cleaning, boresight procedures, and laser safety protocols — if they learn bad habits from you, the next range is on both of you.
• 06Handle, store, and account for controlled cryptographic items (CCI) and classified FCS software per AR 380-40 and the unit's COMSEC SOP.

• —TM 9-2350-294 series — M1A2 Abrams unit and DS maintenance (the main platform bench reference).
• —TM 9-2350-249 series — M2/M3 Bradley IFV unit and DS maintenance (IBAS and FCS chapters).
• —AR 750-43 — Test, Measurement, and Diagnostic Equipment (TMDE) policies — the calibration schedule for every instrument you trust.
• —AR 380-40 — Policy for Safeguarding and Controlling Communications Security (COMSEC) Material (relevant to FCS software media handling).
• —DA PAM 750-1 — Commanders' Maintenance Handbook; DA PAM 750-8 — TAMMS User Manual.
• —ATP 4-33 — Maintenance Operations (your shop's doctrinal framework within the BSB or HHC).

• —BLC complete and promotion-points stacked — fire control credentials (TMDE calibration, optical system certification) are differentiators that not every maintenance SPC can claim.
• —All TMDE in your custody calibrated on schedule per AR 750-43 — one out-of-cal instrument invalidates every measurement taken with it in the last calibration period.
• —MRO closure rate on time and with calibration data attached — shop OIC reads the queue, and the technician whose MROs age without documentation is visible.
• —Gunnery qualification with the assigned vehicle crew as part of system operator familiarization — a fire control tech who has never sat in the gunner's seat does not understand what he is repairing.
• —ACFT 540+ minimum; section fitness tracks with the platoon-sergeant slide.

• —Swapping ballistic processor cards between vehicles without checking hardware configuration compatibility. Two cards that look identical may have different software loads; a bad swap kills the crew's ballistic solution quietly.
• —Closing the MRO without a recorded function check. The tank that "bench-tested clean" will fail the crew's pre-fire boresight at the range and you will spend Saturday on the fault.
• —Letting TMDE certifications lapse on instruments you use daily. Every angle, voltage, and torque reading from that window is suspect, and the warrant officer will ask how long the cal lapsed.
• —Removing and replacing a thermal imager assembly on the CITV without following the TM handling procedure for the focal plane array. A fingerprint on a cooled infrared detector is a $40,000 replacement part.
• —Handling classified FCS software media outside the COMSEC checkout process because the job is urgent. COMSEC incidents at this level generate reports that follow you on every background investigation you ever sit.

The good SPC 91G is the technician the warrant sends to the deadlined Abrams when the section chief is already on the next fault. He comes back with a documented fault-isolation trail, the right LRU on order, and a clean MRO ready to close the day the part lands. The shop OIC is already writing the BLC nomination; the Leonardo DRS field-service rep at the gunnery exercise already asked if he is ETSing.

You are an NCO who owns a fire control section. The warrant officer advises; you run the bench, write the counselings, and sign the dispatch.

You run a 3-5 soldier fire control section inside a maintenance company, an HHC maintenance platoon, or a Field Maintenance Team (FMT) attached to an ABCT. You write counseling statements on the 14th of every month, you brief the section's MRO status at the company production meeting, and you defend the calibration status of every instrument your section owns. You train two or three junior technicians who will replace you when you pin SSG — and the quality of their work is the evidence your section chief evaluates you on. You are the technical authority in the section; the warrant officer handles the materiel-management side; you keep the bench honest.

• 01Build and defend a section maintenance production schedule — open MROs, LRUs on order, scheduled services, technician availability — against the company maintenance production board.
• 02Run a field-maintenance package at NTC/JRTC — FMT operations, contact teams, on-vehicle boresight correction under tactical conditions, battle-damage assessment of fire control components.
• 03Conduct section-level TMDE calibration audits and maintain calibration records per AR 750-43 — every instrument your section signs for, current.
• 04Mentor two junior 91Gs through GCSS-Army proficiency, TM discipline, and fault-isolation methodology — your section's fix rate is their training record.
• 05Write defensible counseling statements on technical performance — not "did a good job," but "closed 12 fire control MROs with a documented fault-isolation trail, zero re-work actions, within a 72-hour window."
• 06Advise the platoon leader and company maintenance OIC on fire control readiness across the battalion's M1A2 and M2A3 fleet — fleet health in plain language they can defend at the BUB.

• —AR 750-1 — Army Materiel Maintenance Policy; AR 710-2 — Supply Policy Below the National Level.
• —AR 750-43 — Test, Measurement, and Diagnostic Equipment (TMDE).
• —AR 623-3 + DA PAM 623-3 — NCOER (you write evaluations now; your bullets must be measurable).
• —AR 380-40 — COMSEC Material Safeguarding Policy (FCS software and classified components accountability).
• —ATP 4-33 — Maintenance Operations; ATP 4-90 — Brigade Support Battalion.
• —TC 7-22.7 — The Army NCO Guide; ADP 6-22 — Army Leadership.

• —ALC (Advanced Leaders Course) for the 91-series electronics maintenance track completed within the eligible window.
• —Section MRO closure rate at or above the company average, with zero documented re-work actions attributable to procedural non-compliance.
• —TMDE calibration 100% current across all instruments the section holds — no lapses, no exceptions.
• —NCOERs written in measurable bullets — MRO closure rate, fleet readiness contribution, soldiers trained and certified, TMDE managed.
• —ACFT 540+; section fitness on the company-level slide, not an afterthought.

• —Counseling soldiers verbally only. When the section's work quality degrades and the company CO asks, "Where's the counseling trail?" — the answer cannot be "I told him."
• —Signing the dispatch on a tank whose FCS function check was done by a private you have not verified can perform it. The Abrams that fails crew gunnery qualification has your name in the maintenance record.
• —Hiding a TMDE calibration lapse from the maintenance warrant to fix it quietly before the inspection. If the calibration window is on the books, so is every reading taken during the gap.
• —Letting a talented junior 91G run fault-isolation on a system outside his documented training. The mis-diagnosed fault costs a LRU replacement you cannot afford in a tight Class IX budget.
• —Neglecting the 948B warrant officer packet conversation with an E-4 who is technically gifted. The 948B path is one of the best technical careers in the Army support community; mentor it like it matters.

The good SGT 91G runs a section the company maintenance OIC names in the slide without caveat. His MROs close with fault-isolation trails attached, his junior techs can run a boresight procedure solo without a TM in hand, and the battalion S4 trusts his LRU exchange status data when he builds the gunnery readiness brief. The maintenance warrant is already watching whether he will write a 948B packet before he makes SSG.

The shop is yours to run. The warrant officer signs the readiness report; you built the data it is based on.

You are the senior fire control NCO in a maintenance company, a BSB maintenance battalion, or the brigade-level electronics maintenance shop. You manage 10-15 technicians across multiple weapon-system fire control families — Abrams, Bradley, and whatever fielded modernization the Army has pushed to your ABCT. You run the fire control sub-section of the GCSS-Army production board, you build the company's Quarterly Training Brief input for electronics and fire control personnel, and you sit on the brigade's monthly maintenance synchronization meeting as the senior enlisted voice on the FCS fleet. When a crew fails gunnery because of a fire control fault no one diagnosed, the brigade maintenance officer asks you first.

• 01Run the fire control section of the GCSS-Army production board at company level — MRO load, LRU exchange pipeline, technician-hours available vs. required, 30/60/90 outlook.
• 02Build a Quarterly Training Brief input that aligns fire control technicians with platform qualification, TMDE proficiency progression, and the brigade's gunnery cycle.
• 03Defend a Command Maintenance Discipline Program (CMDP) inspection at the section level — TM compliance records, TMDE calibration status, COMSEC accountability, OPSEC of classified FCS software, all clean.
• 04Coordinate with contractor Field Service Representatives (FSRs) from Leonardo DRS, L3Harris, or BAE Systems during complex FCS depot-level repairs or fielding events — know what the FSR can do that the unit cannot, and know when to call.
• 05Mentor section NCOs toward shop-chief-ready competency — build two SSG-quality leaders from your SGT bench, or the section degrades when you move.
• 06Translate fire control readiness data into language the FSC / BSB commander can defend at brigade — OR rate, deadline aging, LRU pipeline, what it means for the gunnery calendar.

• —AR 750-1 — Army Materiel Maintenance Policy; AR 700-138 — Army Logistics Readiness and Sustainability.
• —AR 750-43 — Test, Measurement, and Diagnostic Equipment.
• —AR 380-40 — COMSEC Material Safeguarding (FSC software and encrypted components).
• —AR 25-30 — The Army Publishing Program (keep your TM stack on current versions; outdated TMs in the shop are a CMDP finding waiting to happen).
• —AR 623-3 + DA PAM 623-3 — NCOER (you write SGT-level evaluations; your bullets move promotion boards).
• —ATP 4-33 — Maintenance Operations; ATP 4-90 — Brigade Support Battalion; ATP 4-91 — Army Field Support Brigade.

• —SLC complete; MLC packet under construction; Maintenance Senior Sergeants Course at Aberdeen Proving Ground is a differentiator for the 948-series electronics warrant track.
• —Fire control section OR rate at or above the company average — documented, not eye-balled.
• —CMDP inspection findings at section level closed before the next quarterly review.
• —NCOER top-block rate at or above the company average — your technicians' evaluations go up against every other section's; the delta has to show.
• —COMSEC accountability clean across all FCS software media in section custody — one lapse generates a COMSEC incident report that goes above brigade.

• —Inflating the fire control OR rate by sliding deadline-faulted systems into "scheduled service" lanes in GCSS-Army. The brigade S4 reads the demand-history report and the maintenance officer eats it with you in the room.
• —Allowing technicians to perform LRU swaps without documented fault-isolation trails. The sustainment-level repair shop at Aberdeen will return a "NFF" (No Fault Found) tag, the LRU goes back on the shelf unrepaired, and the fault recurs.
• —Skipping the FSR coordination call before a complex FCS depot-action. The unit spends six weeks waiting for a part that the Leonardo DRS FSR could have cross-leveled from a sister brigade's float in two days.
• —Treating the 948B Warrant Officer Application as a low-priority conversation. A technically gifted SSG who misses the 948B window because no one pushed the packet is a wasted asset for both the soldier and the Army.
• —Authorizing classified FCS software media checkout outside COMSEC procedures because "the job is urgent." COMSEC incidents at the SSG level generate reports that end careers at the senior-NCO board.

The good SSG 91G runs the fire control shop the BSB commander names in the briefing as "electronics is solid." His GCSS-Army MRO data is clean enough that the maintenance warrant trusts it without auditing it. He has turned out two SGT-quality section NCOs in the last 18 months and the 948B packet on his desk has a first-rate OER file behind it. When the brigade gunnery cycle opens, his section has already pre-staged every LRU likely to deadline in the first week.

You are the platoon sergeant of an electronics/fire control maintenance platoon, or the senior 91G in a BSB maintenance battalion. The lieutenant signs the readiness report; you make sure the data is true.

You run a 20-40 soldier electronics maintenance platoon inside an ABCT BSB, or you are the senior fire control and electronics NCO advising at BSB or brigade staff level. Under the Army's 94E/91G senior-NCO consolidation, you advise across the full electronics-maintenance family — fire control, radio, SIGINT ground equipment, and associated test equipment — not just one platform. You write four to five NCOERs per cycle that pick the next SSG / SFC slate. You sit on the brigade maintenance synchronization meeting and walk the line during the brigade CMDP inspection. You build the brigade's 948B and 948D Warrant Officer pipeline and you mentor shop chiefs who will run sections without you.

• 01Run an electronics maintenance platoon through a brigade CTC rotation — NTC, JRTC, or JMRC — sustaining the ABCT's fire control fleet across the force-on-force exercise.
• 02Defend a brigade-level Command Maintenance Discipline Program inspection for the electronics and fire control section — TMDE calibration, COMSEC accountability, TM currency, technician certification records, all clean.
• 03Build a brigade 948B / 948D Warrant Officer accession pipeline — at minimum one packet forwarded per year, with the technical record and OER file to compete.
• 04Coordinate AMC and TACOM Logistics Assistance Representative (LAR) reach-back for depot-level FCS repairs and modernization fieldings — what TACOM owns vs. what the unit owns.
• 05Mentor SSG shop chiefs into shop-chief-of-the-year candidates and SFC-board-ready NCOs.
• 06Translate electronics and fire control readiness data into language the BSB commander can defend at brigade — OR rate, TMDE calibration health, LRU exchange pipeline depth.

• —AR 750-1 — Army Materiel Maintenance Policy; AR 700-138 — Army Logistics Readiness and Sustainability.
• —AR 750-43 — Test, Measurement, and Diagnostic Equipment.
• —AR 380-40 — COMSEC Material Safeguarding Policy.
• —AR 623-3 + DA PAM 623-3 — NCOER (your evaluations go against every other PSG's in the brigade).
• —ATP 4-33 — Maintenance Operations; ATP 4-90 — Brigade Support Battalion; ATP 4-91 — Army Field Support Brigade.
• —TC 7-22.7 — The Army NCO Guide; ADP 6-22 — Army Leadership.

• —MLC complete; consider Maintenance Senior Sergeants Course at Aberdeen Proving Ground and USASMA fellowship if SGM-track.
• —Brigade-level CMDP inspection passed with no senior-NCO-attributable findings during your tenure as PSG.
• —948B / 948D warrant officer accession pipeline producing at least one selected candidate per year from the platoon.
• —Platoon ACFT pass rate at or above 95%; platoon-level zero COMSEC incidents, zero classified FCS software losses.
• —Electronics section OR rate at or above brigade average over rolling quarters — documented in GCSS-Army, not estimated.

• —Letting the GCSS-Army deadline-aged report run without a narrative when the brigade S4 briefs it. The number goes up on the slide regardless; the SFC who frames it is the one the BSB commander trusts.
• —Confusing technical depth with sustainment authority. The SFC who pretends to know what TACOM can depot-repair loses credibility with both the unit warrant and the AMC LAR.
• —Skipping the SHARP / EO / unit-climate piece because "maintenance is busy." Senior maintenance NCOs lose careers over command-climate findings as fast as any other career field.
• —Carrying a personal dispute with a peer PSG into the BSB staff. Brigade-level NCOERs notice and the BSB CSM closes doors.
• —Pushing the 948B warrant track to soldiers without warning them honestly about the selection rate and the school washout reality — soldiers who are not prepared blame the NCO who sold them a pitch.

The good SFC 91G is the senior maintenance NCO the BSB commander and BCT CO trust to walk into a CTC rotation and come back with the fire control fleet green, no COMSEC incidents, and a platoon of SSGs and SGTs ready to take the next rung. He runs the brigade's 948B pipeline, his NCOERs move the promotion board, and when the brigade gunnery cycle opens, he has already told the maintenance officer which systems will deadline in the first 48 hours — because he knows the fleet.

You are the senior enlisted electronics and fire control voice at BSB, brigade, or division level. The BCT commander names you in the gunnery-readiness brief as the reason the tanks can see at night.

As 1SG you run an electronics or maintenance company — 80-130 soldiers, multiple shop sections, a complex equipment footprint, the orderly room, the supply room, and the brigade's most sensitive accountability items including classified FCS software and COMSEC devices. As MSG you are the brigade electronics senior NCO, advising across the full 94E/91G family on fire control, communications, and electronic warfare ground equipment. As SGM/CSM you set the enlisted electronics-maintenance standard across a BSB, brigade, or division — training pipelines, certification standards, the 948B/948D warrant officer accession program, and the talent slate at echelons above brigade. You sit alongside O-5s and AMC LARs in the brigade sustainment conversation, and you are the person the BCT commander calls when a gunnery table fails because of a systemic FCS fault no section chief flagged.

• 01Run a maintenance company or brigade electronics maintenance cell that produces TMDE-certified, ALC/SLC-graduated, COMSEC-accountable 94E/91G NCOs at a rate above the brigade average.
• 02Mentor a 948B/948D Warrant Officer accession slate at the brigade or higher level — at minimum one selected per year, with the technical record and OER to compete.
• 03Brief the BCT/Division CG on the brigade's electronics and fire control readiness in language the CG can defend at the next higher echelon — OR trend, TMDE calibration health, LRU pipeline, FSR employment.
• 04Run a brigade-level electronics maintenance posture during a real-world deployment — TACOM/AMC LAR coordination, contractor FSR employment, classified FCS media management in a deployed environment.
• 05Walk the line during the brigade CMDP inspection and identify the broken systems before the IG OC/T does — the senior NCO who finds his own findings first is the one the commander trusts.
• 06Translate Army modernization (new FCS software builds, M1A2 SEPv3 fielding changes, Bradley upgrades) into enlisted-talent decisions at the unit — who needs cross-training, who should be schooled, who is behind.

• —AR 600-20 — Army Command Policy; AR 27-10 — Military Justice (you are in the room now).
• —AR 750-1 — Army Materiel Maintenance Policy; AR 700-138 — Army Logistics Readiness and Sustainability.
• —AR 380-40 — COMSEC Material Safeguarding (classified FCS software accountability at your level is no-fail).
• —AR 638-8 — Army Casualty Program (every senior NCO, every career field).
• —AMC, TACOM, and CASCOM published strategic guidance and modernization memoranda (the guidance traffic between the field and depot that tells you what is coming before the fielding team shows up).
• —The 1SG Course / USASMA / SGM-A reading list — you teach doctrine now and translate it down to shop chiefs who have never left the bench.

• —USASMA / SGM-A completion before competing for command CSM slate.
• —Brigade-level CMDP inspection passed with no senior-NCO-attributable findings during your tenure.
• —Company UCMJ rate, retention rate, and SHARP/EO climate index in the top tier of the BSB.
• —948B / 948D warrant officer accession pipeline producing 1+ selected per year from your unit — it is the visible, measurable evidence that your technical talent development is working.
• —Zero COMSEC incidents, zero classified FCS software media losses under your tenure — one incident at this level generates a report above division, and the investigation takes months.

• —Going public with disagreement with the BSB or BCT commander on a fire control readiness call. The disagreement belongs in the office; you walk out aligned, and if you cannot, you have a bigger problem to solve.
• —Confusing seniority with technical currency. The senior maintenance NCO who cannot describe what a new FCS software build changes — even at a high level — loses authority with both the shop chiefs and the FSR. You do not need to be the best bench tech in the brigade; you need to know enough to ask the right questions.
• —Letting the company's COMSEC and classified FCS software accountability drift because "the warrant handles it." You and the warrant own it together; the 1SG's command climate is what makes the warrant's job possible.
• —Treating the 948B warrant track as a checkbox conversation. The best technical talent in your company needs honest mentorship on the packet — what makes a competitive application, what the school demands, what a 948B career actually looks like — not a recruiter pitch.
• —Stopping personal physical training because you are senior enough that no one will say anything. Soldiers stop carrying diamonds they do not respect.

The good electronics maintenance CSM / 1SG / SGM is the senior NCO the BSB and BCT commanders name without hesitation when the division G4 asks who runs the best electronics shop in the brigade. His maintenance company is the one the BCT loans to the division during gunneries because it comes back with OR rate higher than it left. His 948B accession rate is in the upper third of the Army, his rated NCOs are picking up shop-chief and 1SG chevrons on schedule, and when the M1A2 SEPv3 fielding team shows up with a new FCS software build, he is the one who has already read the fielding plan and briefed his section chiefs a week before the PAX plane landed.