The Army is moving forward with its its program to field an interim short-range air defense capability by fiscal year 2020 with a pre-solicitation notice Friday to begin its search for a partner to produce a final integrated version of the system.
The request for information seeks industry input on moving the prototype IM-SHORAD capability into production of 144 systems with deliveries to start in 2020 and run through 2024.
“The IM-SHORAD system provides 360 degree air defense protection of the Stryker and Armor Brigade Combat Teams throughout the range of military operations. It provides a capability to fill the lack of air defense in current maneuver formations against air threats encountered,” officials wrote in the RFI.
Last September the Army awarded three Other Transaction Authority agreements for individual components for a prototype IM-SHORAD.
Northrop Grumman [NOC] was selected to provide the FAAD command and control capability, Leonardo DRS was tasked with providing the mission equipment package and General Dynamics [GD] focused on integrating the system on Strykers.
The new RFI focused on a production of the complete IM-SHORAD system.
IM-SHORAD is intended to serve as a near-term capability to allow Brigade Combat Teams to better handle new weapons threats from rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft, as well as unmanned aerial systems,
The Army will eventually move to an objective maneuver (OM) SHORAD capability by the 2030s, which is intended to include a directed energy weapons package.
Northrop Grumman told Defense Daily last October the company is interested in providing the potential weapons platform for OM-SHORAD (Defense Daily, Oct. 2018).