HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Army is planning for more experimentation to inform using the new Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) for controlling offensive fires, a lead official said this week.
Col. Chris Hill, the Army’s program manager for integrated fires mission command, told reporters that using IBCS “from an offensive perspective” is part of the service’s “roadmap for integration.”
“So when you start hearing things like GMLRS [rockets],…like PrSM [missiles], those offensive systems are part of our roadmap for integration. In the very near future, in the next few years, you’re going to see IBCS not only controlling PAC-3 [interceptor] missiles as we’re doing air defense engagements but you’ll also see IBCS in the midst of controlling those similar engagements but from an offensive perspective,” Hill said.
IBCS, built by Northrop Grumman (NOC), is the Army’s future missile defense command platform, and is designed to integrate and connect the service’s full range of “sensor to shooter” capabilities.
During a media visit to the Northrop Grumman’s Huntsville Manufacturing Center where it produces IBCS’ components, Hill confirmed the Army is set to begin fielding its first unit with IBCS this December (Defense Daily, March 26).
Following delivery of the first IBCS kit to the 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment in later this year, Hill said the Army will move into follow-on operational and evaluation by February 2025 as it aims to field a second battalion and work to complete deliveries to a third by July 2025.
Northrop Grumman has previously noted that, during the Army’s Project Convergence capstone demonstration in fall 2022, IBCS successfully demonstrated the capability to “provide data for offensive fires for the first time in support of long-range precision fires objectives” (Defense Daily, Nov. 8).
Hill said he expects there will be more experimentation over the next year, to include Project Convergence-related efforts, which will ultimately inform the projected timeline for getting after using IBCS to control offensive fires.
“Probably this year you’re going to see more from an offensive fires standpoint [with IBCS] when it comes to the experiments that I’ve mentioned. You will see some that will be completely industry-driven” Col. Chris Hill, the Army’s program manager for integrated fires mission command, told reporters. “But I’m confident that we’re moving down that road.”
Additionally, qualification testing as part of the Army’s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space’s ongoing Integrated Fires Test Campaign is serving as a key component of future capability testing with IBCS.
The Army began receiving the first major production components for IBCS in December, accepting deliveries of the Integrated Collaborative Environment, while Northrop Grumman officials told reporters during the media visit this week that the first Integrated Fire Control Network Relays and Engagement Operations Center will be delivered by the end of April (Defense Daily, Feb. 2).