Photos: The Army's vision for soldier tech

At the FCS event in May, a soldier demonstrates the operation of the Class I UAV. The aerial vehicle would locate targets that would then be engaged by an affiliated non-line-of-sight (NLOS) weapon.

The House of Representatives was the first chamber of Congress to consider the spending bill, which sets the overall Pentagon budget at just under $650 billion. In those deliberations, the FCS budget was cut by approximately $876 million, according to press reports. But when the Senate Armed Services Committee took up the measure late last week, it restored that funding--and added an additional $90 million for armed robotic vehicles, along with $25 million for other systems. (PDF: The armed-services panel's markup of the defense bill.) The bill is expected to go before the full Senate in early June.