The US Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a $289 million contract to continue development of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS).
Under the contract, Northrop Grumman will upgrade IBCS engagement operations centres and integrated fire control network relays to improve performance, reliability and maintainability. New software will integrate Patriot system updates and evolving threats, and the contractor will also provide logistics, training and support for testing, including a flight test planned for late 2019.
“IBCS creates a paradigm shift for IAMD, and we have proven many transformational capabilities that will be game-changers on the battlefield,” said Dan Verwiel, Vice President and General Manager of Missile Defense and Protective Systems at Northrop Grumman. “IBCS maximizes the combat potential of sensors and weapons while allowing future modernization at lower overall lifecycle costs.
“From integrating weapons developed decades ago with capabilities still in development, to rapidly adding protection against emerging threats and enabling seamless multi-domain operations, through logistics, training and life-cycle support, IBCS is solving some of the most difficult defense challenges confronting our nation and allies today. We are honoured to continue working shoulder-to-shoulder with the army to get next-generation IAMD to the warfighter.”
IBCS has successfully completed flight tests and defeated live targets, having conducted an intercept on its inaugural flight test and a more difficult ‘engage-on-remote’ on its second. During a third flight test, the system simultaneously intercepted two threat types with two interceptor types, demonstrating ‘command-and-control’ for sensors and weapons not designed to work with each other.
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