All Together Now: Integrating the US Army’s Disparate Air and Missile Defenses
April 20/16: The US Army has successfully carried out a dual engagement flight test 
of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS). Developed by Northrop Grumman, the system has the ability to identify, track, engage, and defeat ballistic and cruise missile targets. The April 8 test built upon previous testing and validated the ability of IBCS to manage multiple threats. A Milestone C (production and deployment) decision is anticipated for later this fall.
(click to enlarge)
Interim design review for IBCS completed. (April 26/10)
The US Army awarded a Northrop Grumman-led team a $577 million, 5-year, cost-plus-incentive-fee/ cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS).
Northrop Grumman beat out a team led by Raytheon. The two teams competed in the preliminary design phase of the program.
IBCS is intended to transform the Army’s disparate air and missile defense systems — each with independent sensing, command-and-control and launching capabilities — into an integrated defense capability. The system will enable the Army to manages all of its air and missile defense systems from 1 command-and-control center.
Northrop Grumman’s winning IBCS design is based on a non-proprietary, open architecture approach…
(click for explanation)
The Northrop Grumman design uses a network-centric system-of-systems approach for integrating sensors, weapons, and battle management command, control, communications and intelligence systems (C4ISR).
It uses common software and creates standard interfaces that will allow soldiers to take advantage of expanded sensor and weapon system combinations through an integrated fire-control network.
Northrop Grumman’s team includes heavy hitters Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Harris, as well as Schafer, nLogic, Numerica, Applied Data Trends, Colsa, Space and Missile Defense Technologies, Cohesion Force, Millenium Engineering and Integration, RhinoCorp, and Tobyhanna Army Depot.
The air and missile defense systems that will be integrated via IBCS include:
- Patriot anti-air missile system,
- Surface-Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (SLAMRAAM),
- Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS),
- Sentinel radar, and (if the U.S. Department of Defense approves)
- Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD),
- Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS).
It is worth noting that 4 of the systems that IBCS will integrate – Patriot, JLENS, SLAMRAAM, and THAAD – are developed by Raytheon.
The Integrated Air and Missile Defense Project Office, Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space in Huntsville, AL manages the IBCS program. Northrop Grumman will also headquarter its IBCS program in Huntsville and expects to field the IBCS by 2014.
Updates
April 20/16: The US Army has successfully carried out a dual engagement flight test of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS). Developed by Northrop Grumman, the system has the ability to identify, track, engage, and defeat ballistic and cruise missile targets. The April 8 test built upon previous testing and validated the ability of IBCS to manage multiple threats. A Milestone C (production and deployment) decision is anticipated for later this fall.
October 14/15: The Army wants to buy missile systems capable of scaling up from counterinsurgency operations all the way to highly kinetic combat operations, using modularity to rationalise the various missile systems currently in service. The plan is to use the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) to bring together the multiple air and missile defense systems under one integrated command and control system, with the IBCS currently in development under a $577 million, five-year contract awarded to Northrop Grumman in April 2010. Other routes to improved commonality and modularity include adding different missiles to the prototype Indirect Fire Protection Capability system and acquiring a new 360-degree radar capable of plugging into the Army’s various missile systems.
