Northrop Grumman Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System Pairs with Sensors and Shooters for ‘Live Air’ Test

IBCS simulates tracking and engagement of aircraft and cruise missile targets using networked sensors and missile launchers during three-week exercise

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Sept. 12, 2018  – The Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) successfully detected, tracked and simulated engagements of air targets during recent testing at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The "plug-and-fight" architecture of Northrop Grumman's Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) enables "any-sensor, best-shooter" operations with a greatly expanded single integrated air picture.

During three weeks of U.S. Army-led testing in April and May, IBCS continued to validate its enterprise-level approach to air and missile defense by digesting complex information to target a series of representative aerial threats. This demonstration built upon the earlier multi-node distributed test, another successful soldier checkout event conducted over five weeks in March and April. In that soldier checkout event, IBCS showed that it can scale up and network across long distances.

In the live air test, IBCS demonstrated its ability to combine data from sensors and multiple information sources to accomplish simulated engagements of both real and simulated fixed-wing, rotary-wing, cruise missile and tactical ballistic missile targets.

Military aircraft such as F-15 and F-16 fighters and the slower-moving C-12 turboprop were used as surrogates, replicating the flight patterns of adversary threats along a flight corridor of the White Sands Missile Range.

The test was designed to evaluate various hardware and software functions of the Army’s future IAMD “system of systems,” of which Northrop Grumman’s IBCS is the centerpiece. Twenty major IBCS components were involved in the trial, including IBCS engagement operations centers and integrated fire control network relays.

The test had a number of key objectives, including: the exercise of launcher and sensor controls in a live environment; conduction of simultaneous simulated engagements of multiple aerial targets; integration with the Link 16 tactical data and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) air traffic management networks; and contribution to the joint single integrated air picture.

“IBCS continues to show high levels of performance and reliability,” said Dan Verwiel, vice president and general manager, missile defense and protective systems, Northrop Grumman. “As the command-and-control backbone of the Army’s future air and missile defense enterprise, IBCS will undergo increasingly complex tests as it works through development and prepares for operational fielding in the future.”

“In a dynamic and changing environment, taking advantage of the open, non-proprietary, configurable nature of an IAMD enterprise is imperative for enabling warfighter capabilities to outpace threats and allowing for the addition of capabilities not previously planned at a much reduced cost,” added Bill Lamb, director, integrated air and missile defense, Northrop Grumman.

“IBCS makes legacy systems relevant for today, and provides a path for the next-generation of IAMD that is affordable. Continued testing with Army soldiers in realistic environments is the best way to ensure IBCS and the wider Army IAMD architecture is ready to meet the operational needs of the warfighter.”

Information gathered through this type of soldier checkout testing builds confidence in IBCS with the warfighter and enables the Army to consider early capability spin-out. The open, non-proprietary nature of the software allows for quick turnarounds for improvements, as informed by rigorous testing.

The “plug and fight” architecture of IBCS provides a highly integrated next-generation air and missile defense solution to the Army. It enables “any-sensor, best-shooter” operations with a greatly expanded single integrated air picture.

IBCS is also the air and missile defense command-and-control solution of choice for Poland, which signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance with the U.S. government in March to purchase the system. Poland will become the first international operator.

Northrop Grumman’s Missile Defense Battle Manager Shares Integrated Air Picture Over Vast Distances

Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System extends hundreds of miles to enable the multi-domain battlespace

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Aug. 15, 2018 – The Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC)-developed Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) successfully demonstrated its ability to scale up and network across long distances during a recent U.S. Army-led test. The evaluation was conducted by U.S. Army soldiers over a five-week period with air and missile defense assets located at sites in New Mexico, Texas and Alabama.

The ability of Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) to integrate sensors and shooters over a vast area and grow the single integrated air picture offers huge advantages to air defenders and the joint forces.

“The ability of IBCS to integrate sensors and shooters over a vast area and grow the single integrated air picture offers huge advantages to air defenders and the joint forces,” said Dan Verwiel, vice president and general manager, missile defense and protective systems, Northrop Grumman. “This was demonstrated using an operationally realistic equipment laydown across several states and showed how IBCS is truly a force multiplier.

“This Soldier Checkout Event (SCOE) demonstrated the ability of IBCS to scale broadly. It further demonstrated IBCS’ robust network management technologies to efficiently and effectively maintain voice, data and video connectivity for the warfighter’s increasingly complex and challenging environment,” said Verwiel.

As part of SCOE 4.0, the multi-node distributed test examined IBCS’ scalability, resilience and performance under stressing threat conditions. The open-architecture IBCS networked more than 20 nodes across White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico; Fort Bliss, Texas; and Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Integrated to operate as a single system, the test involved nine IBCS engagement operations centers and 12 IBCS integrated fire control network relays, along with Sentinel short range air defense radars and Patriot radars, Patriot Advance Capability Two (PAC-2), PAC-3 and PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptors.

The test required IBCS to virtually form an IAMD task force to defend four critical assets while tracking ‘red’ and ‘blue’ fighter aircraft, cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles. Multiple two-hour scenarios were run to check IBCS abilities, including: providing and managing a network to maintain voice, data and video connectivity; performing friend-or-foe identification of air objects and forming the single integrated air picture; and planning, executing and monitoring simulated threat engagements.

The test also included dynamically adding and removing nodes to confirm IBCS’ ability to self-configure as a mobile ad hoc network.

The IBCS-enabled enterprise system provides significant benefits over standalone, proprietary systems that merely ‘talk’ with each other. With IBCS, air and missile defense commanders can orchestrate forces over extensive distances using whatever means of communications that are available. Today, commanders are restricted by the proprietary and limited networks tied to the individual closed systems.

“Extensive testing has shown IBCS to be increasingly mature and its capabilities will be game-changers on the battlefield. IBCS delivers an unprecedented degree of integration to fill gaps in today’s air defenses while enabling multi-domain concepts such as affordably integrating unmanned or fifth generation fighter aircraft,” said Verwiel.

IBCS continues to validate the advantages of an open-systems, net-centric, enterprise approach to air and missile defense for getting capabilities to the warfighter that make a pivotal difference on the battlefield. Previous SCOE trials proved IBCS’ value for building a significantly more accurate integrated air picture and its effectiveness for countering electronic attacks.

The system has already demonstrated its ability to take out live targets, having conducted a successful intercept on its inaugural flight test and a more difficult “engage-on-remote” on its second flight test. During its third flight test, IBCS simultaneously intercepted two types of threats with two different interceptor types by providing command-and-control for sensors and weapons never designed to work with each other. Two more successful flight tests in support of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability were conducted with Sidewinder and Longbow Hellfire missiles. Both missiles were integrated into the system within a few short months.

IBCS is the central component of the Army’s future IAMD construct. The program is managed by the Army Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

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