Northrop Grumman this week submitted its bid for the prime role in the U.S. Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) competition. Due to be awarded in August 2008, the contract is considered the first step towards an integrated air and missile defense capability for the Army, and a joint capability for the nation.

Under IBCS, the winning team 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. The newly integrated system will allow warfighters to take advantage of expanded sensor and weapon system combinations via an integrated fire control network.

"Our team has listened closely to the customer's needs and has developed an open architecture approach that connects Army systems with joint systems, allowing the services to operate as one integrated force in the future," said Larry Dodgen, vice president and deputy general manager of Missile Defense Division for Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems sector.

"We are leveraging our team's collective expertise in command and control, and air and missile defense to deliver a transformational system that will meet tomorrow's needs and give the warfighter the ultimate defensive advantage on the field."

Northrop Grumman is leading a team that includes The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Harris Corporation, Schafer Corporation, Torch Systems LLC, Numerica Corporation, Applied Data Trends, COLSA Corporation, Space and Missile Defense Technologies LLC, CohesionForce Inc., Millennium Engineering and Integration Company, RhinoCorps, Ltd. Co., and Tobyhanna Army Depot.

The program is being managed by the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Program Office, Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space in Huntsville, Ala.

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 (AMDWS), a decision dominance system used successfully in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

AMDWS has been proliferated throughout the Army and provides 3-D situational awareness and understanding. Northrop Grumman is also 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. In February, Northrop Grumman was one of two companies awarded a contract by the U.S. Army for the Extended Area Protection and Survivability Integrated Demonstration program.

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 Missile Defense Integration and Operations Center, is leading an industry team to develop and test the Kinetic Energy Interceptor system -- a mobile boost/midcourse phase missile-defense capability, and is prime contractor for the Space Tracking and Surveillance Program.