In air and missile defense (AMD), the Integrated Air-and-Missile Defense system (IAMD) is a United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command (USASMDC) research program to augment the aging surface-to-air missile defense systems and to provide the United States Army with a low-cost, but effective complement to kinetic energy solutions to take out air threats. Brigade level higher energy lasers are used in truck mounted systems called HELMTT. At lower levels, the Army needs to develop interceptors that don't cost more than small, unmanned aircraft systems. In early research they have successfully used 5-kilowatt lasers on a Stryker combat vehicle. The Mobile Expeditionary High-Energy Laser (MEHEL) was used at MFIX at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in the first half of April, 2017.
Air, Missile Defense Split from: Army Futures Command Air, Missile Defense (AMD):AARON MAK (MAY 12, 2019) Report: Missile System and Surveillance Plane Funding Will Go Towards the Border Wall slate.com Paul McCleary (4 September 2019) Border Wall Money Taken From Alaska Missile Interceptors, Shipyards & More breakingdefense.com lists some of the affected projects Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (10 September 2019) Will Trump's Wall Mean a Delay in Defense Funding? breakingdefense.com $3.6 billion shift MATTHEW CHOI (09/16/2019) Pentagon puts brakes on 3 border barrier projects because of cost reverses $2.5 billion that would have been cut from missile defense allocation, Fort Knox middle school, etc. Eleanor Watson Li Zhou (26 Sep 2019) Congress just made moves to narrowly avert another government shutdown Continuing resolution (CR) funds until mid-November JENNIFER SCHOLTES (10/17/2019) Senate fails to override Trump on border wall emergencyJason Cutshaw (SMDC/ARSTRAT) (22 March 2019) Army's senior air defender talks future of air, missile defenseGary Sheftick, Army News Service (13 March 2019) FY20 budget to boost air & missile defenseMG Cedric T. Wins (09.10.2019) CCDC’S road map to modernizing the Army: air and missile defense DVIDS release (10 September 2019) Same CCDC text but with 3 more images. Fifth in a series.Justin Katz (26 Apr 2022) Lockheed sending first five A4 radars to Army next month "Army's Q-53 counterfire target acquisition radar and the Air Force's new long-range radar" 2023 deliveryJen Judson (27 Apr 2022) US Army plan to replace Patriot interceptors gets a jolt in FY23 budget request Budget request for FY2023: Abbreviated Concept Development Document (ACDD) in FY24. Down select: 2QFY2023–4QFY2025. Concept Development Document by 1QFY24. Rapid capability development phase begins 1QFY25. In 2022 plans for FY2023 cruise missile defense were underway.Jen Judson (18 Jul 2022) Pentagon plan for homeland cruise missile defense taking shape
Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System
The United States Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense [IAMD] Battle Command System (IBCS) is a plug and fight network intended to let any defensive sensor (such as a radar) feed its data to any available weapon system (colloquially, "connect any sensor to any shooter").ASA(ALT) Weapon Systems Handbook 2018 update The system is designed to shoot down short, medium, and intermediate range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase by intercepting with a hit-to-kill approach.IBCS a Revolutionary C2 System 4:40 video clipDaniel Cebul Daniel Cebul (9 October 2018) Army looks to a future of integrated fire by integrating THAAD IBCS LRPF IBCS has been developed since 2004, with the aim to replace Raytheon's Patriot missile (SAM) engagement control station (ECS), along with seven other forms of ABM defense command systems.Jen Judson (11 Oct 2018)
The IBCS program is part of the Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) effort.Theresa Hitchens (11 Aug 2021) JROC's Next Target: 'Integrated Air & Missile Defense' IAMD will eventually be subject to a JROC capability review —John Hyten. JADC2 will thus have to be harmonized with IAMD.U.S. Army (12 December 2019) Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense System successfully intercepts test targetsUSAASC (2020) Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) IBCS aims to create an integrated network of air defense sensors, such as AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel and AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR, AN/MPQ-53, AN/MPQ-65A and LTAMDS in Patriot missile system,Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. Army IBCS: Joint, Up To A Point. Breaking Defense. 15 May 2020 GhostEye MR in NASAMS, AN/TPY-2 in Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)Jen Judson (27 March 2019) Army debuts missile defense framework in move to counter drones, hypersonic threats and Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD), AN/SPY-1 and AN/SPY-6 in Aegis BMD,Tyler Rogoway. Here’s What The Army’s Long-Awaited Super Air Defense Network Can Actually Do. The Warzone. October 29, 2020 and AN/APG-81 in Lockeed Martin F-35 Lightning II,Jen Judson (6 August 2019) F-35 talks to US Army's missile command system, says Lockheed allowing them to interoperate with IBCS engagement control stations.Jen Judson (20 August 2019) US Missile Defense Agency boss reveals his goals, challenges on the job Increase the discrimination of the radars and other sensors. Use Large aperture sensors. Use Space-based missile sensors. An SM-3 Block IIA missile test against ICBM is scheduled for 2020. Plan out the detection, control and engagement; the sensors, the command-and-control, the fire control, and the weapons (the kill vehicles). IBCS engagement stations will be able to take fine control of army-fielded air-defense systems like Patriot and THAAD, directing radar positioning and suggesting recommended launchers; naval, aerial and Marine systems will only be able to share either radar tracks or raw radar data with the IBCS network. The Army requires all new missiles and air-defense systems to implement IBCS support.Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. New Missiles Must Work With IBCS Network: Bruce Jette (Exclusive). Breaking Defense. March 09, 2020
Northrop Grumman was announced as the prime contractor in 2010; between 2009 and 2020, the Army had spent $2.7 billion on the program.Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) vendor summary
By May 2015, a first flight test integrated a networked S-280 engagement operations center with radar sensor and interceptor launchers. This test demonstrated a missile kill with the first interceptor. By Army doctrine, two interceptors were launched against that missile. By April 2016, IBCS tests demonstrated sensor fusion from disparate data streams, identification and tracking of targets, selection of appropriate kill vehicles, and interception of the targets, but the "IBCS software was 'neither mature nor stable'".Jen Judson (6 February 2017) On 1 May 2019 an Engagement Operations Center (EOC) for the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) was delivered to the Army, at Huntsville, Alabama.Sydney J Freedberg (1 May 2019) IBCS: Northrop Delivers New Army Missile Defense Command Post 11 EOCs as well as 18 IBCS integrated fire control network (IFCN) relays by year-end 2019
In July 2019, the TRADOC capability manager (TCM) for Strategic Missile Defense (SMD) has accepted the charter for DOTMLPF for the Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT).Jason Cutshaw, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (7.24.2019) SMDC colonel accepts TCM SMD Assumption of Charter from AMD to SMD
On 30 August 2019 at Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein atoll, THAAD Battery E-62 successfully intercepted a medium range ballistic missile (MRBM), using a radar which was well-separated from the interceptors; the next step tested Patriot missiles as interceptors while using THAAD radars as sensors; a THAAD radar has a longer detection range than a Patriot radar.Paul McCleary (30 August 2019) Army Tests Dispersed THAAD; Beginning Of Modular Missile Defense? A step toward IBCS THAAD Battery E-62 engaged the MRBM without knowledge of just when the medium range ballistic missile had launched.MDA.mil MDA NEWS Release (30 August 2019) THAAD System Successfully Intercepts Target in Missile Defense Flight Test Flight Test THAAD (FTT)-23 image: https://www.mda.mil/global/images/system/thaad/FTT-23_THAAD_01.jpg at Kwajalein
IBCS' second limited user test was scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter of FY20.Sydney J Freedberg
In July 2020 a Limited user test (LUT) of IBCS was initiated at WSMR; the test ran until mid-September 2020.Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (6 July 2020) IBCS: Army Launches Massive Army Missile Defense Test LUT is prerequisite for a Milestone C decision in the acquisition process. The LUT was originally scheduled for May but was delayed to handle the COVID-19 safety protocols. The first of several LUTs of IBCS, by an ADA battalion was successfully run in August 2020.Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (13 August 2020) IBCS: Army Missile Defense Passes Most Complex Test Yet IBCS successfully integrated data from two sensors (Sentinel and Patriot radars), and shot down two drones (cruise missile surrogates) with two Patriot missiles in the presence of jamming; In the week after, by 20 August 2020 two more disparate threats (cruise missile and ballistic missile) were launched and intercepted;Matthew Cox (20 August 2020) Army Destroys Cruise and Ballistic Missile Targets in 2nd Test of New Defense SystemJason Cutshaw USASMDC (27 August 2020) SMDC target team supports Army IBCS tests Zombie launched to test IBCS the ADA battalion then ran hundreds of drills denoting hundreds of threats for the remainder of the IBCS tests (the increased effort occupied the entire unit);Lt. Col. David P. McCoy, Test Division Chief, Air and Missile Defense Test Directorate, U.S. Army Operational Test Command (11 September 2020) Ft. Bliss Air Defense Soldiers provide data testing new Integrated Air and Missile Defense system the real-world data serve as a sanity check for Monte Carlo simulations of an array of physical scenarios amounting to hundreds of thousands of cases.Todd South (20 Aug 2020) Army missile defenders defeat cruise and ballistic missiles nearly simultaneously The test created terabytes of data to be queried.Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (21 August 2020) IBCS Defeats 2 Missiles in Flight – But 100s In Simulation Andrew Eversden (20 August 2020) US Army buys two new supercomputers to meet data analytics demand IBCS created a "single uninterrupted composite track of each threat" and handed off each threat for separate disposition by the air and missile defense's integrated fire control network (IFCN).Defense Brief Editorial (20 August 2020) US Army IBCS intercepts ballistic, cruise missile targets in second LUT test "IBCS integrated the data to form a single uninterrupted composite track of each threat, impossible with any single sensor, which then informed engagement solutions with the best interceptors to engage both incoming threats" The same battalion running the LUT, for both IBCS, and LTAMDS radar, is scheduled to run the Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOTE) in 2021,Sydney J Freedberg (3 August 2020) Live-Fire Tests In August For Army Air & Missile Defense and is to run well into 2022. In 2022, IBCS successfully completed initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E).Theresa Hitchens (9 Nov 2022) Army’s IBCS wraps up initial operational testing Northrop Grumman received a "five-year, $1.4 billion contract in late December" 2021.
In September 2020 a Joint exercise against cruise missiles demonstrated AI-based kill chains which can be formulated in seconds; One of the kills was by a "M109-based" tracked howitzerTheresa Hitchens AFWERX (25 August 2020) Dr. Will Roper ABMS 'Ask Me Anything' (a Paladin descendant).