The United States Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense [IAMD] Battle Command System (IBCS) is a plug-and-fight network intended to let a radar or any other defensive sensor feed its data to any available weapon—colloquially, "connect any sensor to any shooter".ASA(ALT) Weapon Systems Handbook 2018 update The IBCS is designed to link radars across thousands of miles and shoot down short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase.Daniel Cebul
IBCS was designed to replace eight anti-ballistic missile defense command systems, including Raytheon's Patriot missile engagement control station.Jen Judson (11 Oct 2018) Development began in 2004; 18 years later, IBCS completed initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E). It was approved for full-rate production in 2023.
Requirements 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. IBCS aims to create an integrated network of air defense sensors that can interoperate with IBCS engagement control stations. Such sensors include AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel; AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR; AN/MPQ-53, AN/MPQ-65A and GhostEye (LTAMDS) in the Patriot missile system; GhostEye MR in NASAMS; AN/TPY-2 in Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD); AN/SPY-1 and AN/SPY-6 in Aegis BMD; and AN/APG-81 in Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.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 control Army air-defense systems such as Patriot and THAAD, directing radar positioning and suggesting recommended launchers. Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps systems will be able only to share radar tracks or raw radar data. The Army requires all new missiles and air-defense systems to support IBCS.Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. New Missiles Must Work With IBCS Network: Bruce Jette (Exclusive) . Breaking Defense. March 09, 2020
History In 2010, the Army picked Northrop Grumman to be the prime contractor.
In May 2015, the Army networked an S-280 engagement operations center with radar sensors and interceptor launchers for a test. Following Army doctrine, two interceptors were launched against a target missile, which was destroyed.
In April 2016,Jen Judson (6 February 2017) IBCS 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'".
In 2018, IBCS was projected to be at its initial operating capability in fiscal 2022. In January 2018, Lt. Gen. James H. Dickinson and Richard Formica suggested that a single unit might operate strategic fires and air/missile defense.Jason B. Cutshaw, USASMDC/ARSTRAT Public Affairs (30 January 2018) SMDC leader addresses national missile defense community Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) (28 Jan 2018) Distributed Defense: New Operational Concepts for Integrated Air and Missile Defense 2:40:56 James H. Dickinson SMDCAndrew Feickert, Specialist in Military Ground Forces, Congressional Research Service (CRS) (31 May 2022) The Army's Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) report IF11797
In May 2019, an IBCS Engagement Operations Center (EOC) 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) 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
In August 2019 at Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll, THAAD Battery E-62 intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile using a radar that was well-separated from the interceptors and without knowing just when it 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 In the next test, Patriot interceptors were guided by THAAD radars, which have longer detection ranges than Patriot radars.Sydney J Freedberg
From July (delayed from May by the COVID-19 pandemic) to September 2020, White Sands Missile Range conducted a limited user test of IBCS.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. In August 2020,Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (13 August 2020) IBCS: Army Missile Defense Passes Most Complex Test Yet an air-defense battalion integrated data from two sensors (Sentinel and Patriot radars) to overcome jamming and shoot down two drones (cruise missile surrogates) with two Patriot missiles. By 20 August 2020, IBCS was used to down two disparate threats in a test: a cruise missile and ballistic missile.
The battalion then ran hundreds of drills simulating hundreds of threats, providing real-world data to check on Monte Carlo simulations of an array of physical scenarios amounting to hundreds of thousands of cases.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 battalion used IBCS to detect, track, and intercept near-simultaneous low-altitude targets as well as a tactical ballistic missileCJ Robles Jen Judson (20 Aug 2020) The tests allowed Army doctrine to be updated to allow the launch of a single Patriot against a single target. As well, the battalion was tapped to run the Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOTE) in 2021Sydney J Freedberg (3 August 2020) Live-Fire Tests In August For Army Air & Missile Defense and 2022.
In September 2020, a joint cruise-missile-defense exercise demonstrated AI-based kill chains formulated in seconds. One of the kills was by a kinetic projectile fired by a tracked howitzer based on the M109.Theresa Hitchens
From 2009 to 2020, the Army spent $2.7 billion on the program.Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) vendor summary In 2021, the Army awarded a $1.4 billion contract to Northrop Grumman for the IBCS.Andrew Eversden (23 Dec 2021) Army awards Northrop Grumman $1.4 billion contract for IBCS
At the Army's Project Convergence 2021 tech demonstration and experimentation event, IBCS was used to pass information from ground, air, and space sensors to a fire control system.Jen Judson (19 Jan 2022) At Project Convergence, Army's new battle command system demonstrated expanded capability IBCS passed sensor data from an F-35 to AFATDS (Army Field Artillery Tactical Data System), using the aircraft as a spotter for artillery fire.Christine Wormuth (10.11.2021) AUSA 2021 In February 2022, testers used IBCS to engage targets using various mixes of radars, interceptors, and fire control systems from the THAAD and Patriot systems.Jen Judson (10 Mar 2022) Missile Defense Agency fires Patriot missile from THAAD system For example, in a scenario where a THAAD system has to conserve its All-Up-Rounds, IBCS can calculate which targets are within the reach of its Patriot PAC-3 MSE interceptors, and fire those instead as needed.
In April 2023, the IBCS was approved for full-rate production, after years of delays.
In March 2024, Poland signed a $2.5 billion deal for the IBCS, to be delivered between 2024 and 2031, as part of its air defense strategy. In December 2025, the country announced full operational readiness of its IBCS network, making it the first of the United States' allies to field the system.
Raytheon GhostEye (Lower Tier Air and Missiles Defense Sensor)
Raytheon's new GhostEye radar (previously Lower Tier Air and Missiles Defense Sensor, LTAMDS) replaces the Patriot AN/SPY-65A radar. GhostEye will be able to feed raw sensor data to IBCS, and it will fit on a C-17 Globemaster.Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. (19 March 2020) Raytheon: Robotized Factory Speeds Up Army LTAMDS Radar Avoids DoD5000 by using "Other Transaction Authority (OTA) and Section 804 Mid-Tier Acquisition processes" GhostEye is engineered to operate with much greater sensitivity, improved range and ability to track smaller, faster-moving targets. It uses three fixed 120-degree arrays to seamlessly find, discriminate and track fast-approaching threats using a 360-degree protection envelope. The arrays are overlapping to close "blind spots" and maintain a track if an attacking missile shifts course in flight. GhostEye can detect the precise shape, size, distance and speed of an approaching threat with high-fidelity sensor "pings"; its semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) emitters allow increased resolution, accuracy, and power efficiency.Raytheon Missiles & Defense (2 Oct 2020) Soldiers See – And Touch – Raytheon Technologies' Full-Scale GhostEye in 4 Soldier TouchpointsAndrew Eversden (11 Oct 2021) Raytheon Announces New Medium-Range Radar System Defense News (21 Oct 2021) GhostEye - Nothing Goes Unseen GhostEye MR (medium range) introduced at AUSA, October 2021Patrick Tucker (16 Nov 2023) New chip coated with man-made diamonds promises smaller, more powerful radars GaN The fielding of four LTAMDS radars to a battalion is expected in 2023.Jen Judson (2 May 2022) US Army scrambles to keep its new air-defense radar on schedule 1st of 4 LTAMDS radars will enter testing at WSMR in April 2022; 4 radars will be fielded to an LTAMDS battalion by December 2023 to meet the Congressional mandate.Andrew Eversden (14 Oct 2022) Raytheon aims to finish LTAMDS radar prototypes for Army in January 6th radar In August 2024, the Army awarded Raytheon a $2 billion low-rate initial production contract for the LTAMDS radar through November 2028.Ashley Rocque (2 Aug 2024) Army awards Raytheon $2 billion to begin LTAMDS production
The Indirect fire protection capability (IFPC)