Northrop Grumman eyes hardware and software for open-systems battle management and situational awareness
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – Battle management experts at Northrop Grumman Corp. will help military authorities quickly deal with uncertain information concerning potential air and missile attacks.
Officials of the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., announced a $59.9 million order last week to the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems segment in Huntsville, Ala., for production hardware and software for the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS).
The IBCS is to be a revolutionary air command-and-control (C2) system to help air and missile defenders make quick decisions and adapt quickly to changing battlefield conditions.
The IBCS will help enhance aircraft and missile tracking and situational awareness to enable military commanders and air defenders to make critical decisions within seconds in response to air and missile attacks.
Northrop Grumman won a $1.4 billion contract in late 2021 for IBCS low-rate initial production and full-rate production. The company won a $67 million order in late 2017 for long-lead-time materials on IBCS. Long-lead items either are difficult and time-consuming to obtain, and are funded early in the design process to keep overall production on schedule.
The IBCS represents a modular open-systems architecture to optimize limited resources and facilitate flexible defense designs, company officials say.
The IBCS enables commanders to tailor organizations, sensors, and weapons to meet the demands of diverse missions, environments, and rules of engagement not achievable today, Northrop Grumman officials say. It provides wide-area surveillance and broad protection areas by networking sensors and interceptors.
The system enables affordable integration of current and future sensors, weapons, and modernization efforts, and helps connect systems for joint and cooperative multinational missile defense.
The IBCS is to replace seven legacy command-and-control systems with network-centric battle management to reduce single points of failure and increase the flexibility for deploying small force packages. The system creates a standard approach across forces to reduce logistics burdens and change training.
On this order Northrop Grumman will do the work in Huntsville, Ala., and should be finished by June 2025. For more information contact Northrop Grumman Mission Systems online at www.northropgrumman.com/who-we-are/business-sectors/mission-systems, or the Army Contracting Command-Redstone at https://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-rsa/.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
