Article Posted on : - Aug 18, 2010

HUNTSVILLE (BNS): Northrop Grumman has delivered the first battery engagement operations center for the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) to the US Army.

When fully developed, the IBCS battery engagement operations center will enable an Army air defense battery to establish common battle command of air defense assets that are fully integrated with other Army and joint IAMD systems.

The initial system consists of common hardware and software housed in a rigid wall shelter and mounted on a five-ton M1085 Medium Tactical Vehicle, a part of the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, the company statement said.

"This initial system will be used as a test bed to support the IBCS critical design review and the IBCS software development and coding," said US Army Major General Genaro "Gino" J Dellarocco.

The IBCS program will provide the Army with its first truly open-architecture and mission-tailorable battle command system for air and missile defense units. The system will also utilize an integrated fire control network based on a track management solution that provides vastly improved decision-making aids.

This will enable IBCS to supply warfighters with the data to make time-sensitive tactical decisions under the most demanding conditions and significantly enhance joint IAMD operations.

Systems that will be integrated via IBCS include Patriot, Surface-Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (SLAMRAAM), Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS), Improved Sentinel radar among others.