Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] submitted a bid for the Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) competition, the company announced today.
The firm leads one of two teams that was awarded an 11-month Phase I contract in September to begin preliminary design and development. The Army is expected to down-select to one team in August.
IBCS is considered the first step towards an integrated air and missile defense battle command capability for the Army, and a joint capability for the nation. The program will set the stage for future integration of sensors and weapons using standard interfaces.
Northrop leads a team including The Boeing Co. [BA]; Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT]; Harris Corp.; Schafer Corp.; Torch Technologies Inc.; Numerica; Applied Data Trends; COLSA; Space and Missile Defense Technologies (SMDT); CohesionForce Inc.; Millenium Engineering and Integration Co.; RhinoCorp, ltd. Co.; and Tobyhanna Army Depot. If selected, Northrop will headquarter its IBCS program in Huntsville, Ala.
In addition to submitting the phase II bid, the Northrop team also completed a Preliminary Design Review, which occurred this week.
IBCS will establish a network-centric system-of-systems solution for integrating sensors, shooters, and battle management, command, control, communications and intelligence systems for Army air and missile defense responsibilities.
Programs such as Patriot, SLAMRAAM, JLENS, Sentinel and THAAD will be connected via an integrated fire control network that allows the warfighter to use any sensor and any weapon to achieve mission objectives. The program is expected to be fielded by 2014.
The program is being managed by the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Project Office, Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space in Huntsville.