The US Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a $1,38 billion contract for low-rate and full-rate production of the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) after this year’s successful test campaign.
This award represents the first significant competition for this major defense acquisition program since the 2009 award of the engineering and manufacturing development contract.
IBCS is a keystone Army Futures Command program designed to provide a decisive battlefield advantage through weapon and sensor integration and a common mission-command system across all domains, delivering an integrated fires capability to the warfighter while improving battle space awareness, decision timing and protection against threats in complex integrated attack scenarios.
IBCS enables battle survivable “any-sensor, best-effector” operations by fusing information from multiple, disparate sensors to create a single integrated air picture, and employing all available effectors to defeat advancing threats.
Earlier this year, the service completed the eighth and final developmental flight test of the IBCS, during which it successfully engaged a cruise missile target. The IBCS managed to guide an intercept of the missile in a highly contested electronic attack environment during a test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Under the terms of this contract, Northrop Grumman will deliver up to 160 systems to support the modernization of air and missile defense for the US Army and foreign partners. Following an FRP decision in fiscal year 2023, the contract will enable the program to seamlessly ramp up production to meet Army fielding priorities.
