WASHINGTON and HUNTSVILLE, Ala., June 14, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) announced today that it has created a prototypical Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS), residing in a Huntsville laboratory, that could potentially save the U.S. Army both time and money in building a fully operational system.
IBCS will be an Army transformational program that will establish a network-centric system-of-systems solution for integrating sensors, shooters, and battle management, command, control, communications and intelligence systems (BMC4I) for Army air and missile defense. IBCS will allow warfighters to utilize the right sensors and the right weapon systems commanded and controlled via a common battle command system and will be the first step toward a Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense capability.
"IBCS will vastly improve the number of sensors and shooters available to the warfighter in any given situation, allowing him to tailor specific capabilities to any highly dynamic threat environment using best-of-breed components plugged into an open-architecture," said Frank Moore, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Missile Defense Division. "Northrop Grumman has already developed an initial version of this capability in our IBCS Protolab. We've pulled together and integrated all of the elements -- command post, the common software, middleware, modules, servers, laptops -- everything needed to hit the ground running."
"There's still a lot of work to be done, but Northrop Grumman has made a significant investment to develop the IBCS Protolab -- an actual, open architecture, working model of IBCS -- which could ultimately translate into major savings of both time and money for the Army," said Ed McAlister, IBCS program manager for Northrop Grumman. "The IBCS Protolab gives the company a significant lead in developing a fully operational IBCS, offering the Army a head start in getting this necessary capability to the warfighter sooner, rather than later."
The Integrated Air and Missile Defense Program Office, which was established in August 2006 and is part of the Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space in Huntsville, will manage the IBCS procurement.
Northrop Grumman is a leading provider of command and control and battle management systems across the U.S. Department of Defense. The company is the prime contractor for developing and fielding the Air and Missile Defense Workstation, a decision dominance system used successfully in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Northrop Grumman also builds and fields the Army Air and Missile Defense Command's Tactical Operations Centers and is responsible for building and fielding the Air Defense Airspace Management cell resident at every Brigade Combat Team, Division and Corps, integrating the common activities of air defense and aviation. Further, Northrop Grumman will leverage its systems engineering and integration expertise derived from fielding the Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar system to support the IBCS effort.
Northrop Grumman has extensive experience in the U.S. missile defense integration market. For the ground-based mid-course defense system, the company is developing the highly successful fire control and launch control equipment software. The company is the prime contractor at the Joint National Integration Center and is also leading an industry team to develop and test the Kinetic Energy Interceptor system -- a mobile boost/ascent/early-midcourse phase missile-defense capability, and is prime contractor for the Space Tracking and Surveillance Program.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a $30 billion global defense and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.