Latest news with #IntegratedBattleCommandSystem
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First Post
05-05-2025
- Politics
- First Post
US sending Patriot air defence system based in Israel to Ukraine amid truce offer row with Russia
In the coming months, Ukraine is expected to get two more Patriot air defence systems at a time when Russia has stepped up aerial bombardment read more A general view of surface-to-air missile launchers of the Patriot (Wisla) system newly added into the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) at an army base in Sochaczew, Poland, December 18, 2024. (Photo: Reuters) As Russia has stepped up attacks, Ukraine is about to get two more Patriot air defence systems in the coming months. The United States is sending one Patriot air defence system currently deployed in Israel to Ukraine and Germany or Greece are arranging one system from amongst themselves, according to The New York Times. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asking more air defence systems, particularly the US-made Patriots, for several months. US President Donald Trump had berated him last month for such requests, saying that he was 'always looking to purchase missiles'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Ukraine currently has eight Patriot systems and six of them are currently operational, as per The Times. Patriot is a surface-to-air (SAM) missile system that is used for defence against aircraft, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles. It comprises radar, guiding system, and missiles. The radar can detect incoming threats as far as 150 kilometres away and launch guided missiles accordingly to neutralise them. Patriot transfer approved by Biden: Report A former White House official told The Times that the transfer of Patriot system from Israel to Ukraine was approved by former President Joe Biden. The Patriot system is currently being refurbished in Israel and would be transferred to Ukraine by the end of the summer, according to the newspaper. Even as Trump has been dismissive of Ukrainian requirements, the Department of Defense told the newspaper that 'it continues to provide equipment to Ukraine from previously authorised' packages. Of the eight Patriot systems with Ukraine at the moment, only six are functional and two are in the process of being refurbished, as per the newspaper. The news of the transfer comes at a time when Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks as Trump has increasingly supported Russia. While Trump had always been critical of the support for Ukraine and friendly with Russia, he has aligned the United States completely with Russia in his second term. He has entered into negotiations with Russia for a reset in bilateral relationships and has floated peace plans that contain some of the biggest Russian demands. However, Russia has still rejected all three ceasefire proposals and one comprehensive plan floated by Trump. Yet it is Ukraine that Trump has bashed repeatedly instead of Russia or its leader. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Northrop Grumman opens new state-of-the-art integration center in Madison
MADISON, Ala. (WHNT) — Northrop Grumman's new 175,000 square foot facility aims at supporting the Army's enhanced modernization plan for air and missile defense. The new Enhanced Production and Integration Center builds upon Northrop Grumman's ability to scale production and manufacture critical capabilities at speed, expanding the capacity for high-rate production programs. The new facility is stationed in Madison. Trump sued over 'Liberation Day' tariffs Harvard rejects Trump demands for funding Venezuelan man tackled in a New Hampshire courthouse, sent by ICE to Texas Hartselle man charged by authorities during ongoing fentanyl investigation Stephen Miller contradicts DOJ court docs on man mistakenly deported This specific facility will manage component integration for the Integrated Battle Command System. With this expansion, Northrop Grumman said production capacities will expand. EPIC spans more than 129,500 square feet of flexible production space and totals 175,500 square feet of covered production space. The facility also has 35,000 square feet of office space and is able to accommodate several hundred employees. 'Our investment in American manufacturing with this new facility enables us to continue supporting critical modernization efforts, such as producing capabilities like IBCS at scale and speed. With this investment, we're doubling our integration space and significantly enhancing our storage and classified testing capabilities, ensuring America leads the world in military strength,' Northrop Grumman vice president and general manager, command and control & weapons integration Kenn Todorov said. The new facility doubles the size of the previous center and aims to integrate technological and digital advancements. It also grows the company's fully digital approach to streamlining the design and build process. Northrop Grumman said the investment into this project was $20 million. 'The facility will ensure delivery of cutting-edge solutions and meet fielding quantities and objectives for both domestic and Foreign Military Sales production,' the company said. IBCS is a revolutionary command and control system that unifies current and future systems regardless of source, service or domain. Through its network-enabled, modular, open and scalable architecture, IBCS fuses sensor data for a single actionable picture of the full battlespace. This ready-now capability gives warfighters more time to make decisions on how best to defeat threats and is a foundational element for enabling joint and coalition, multi-domain operations. IBCS is in production, currently fielded in Poland, and planned for fielding in Combatant Commands in Europe and the Indo-Pacific to include Guam as part of the U.S. Army program of record for integrated air and missile defense modernization. Northrop Grumman You can read more about the new facility on Northrop Grumman's website here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Army looks to artificial intelligence to enhance future Golden Dome
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is looking to increase autonomy through artificial intelligence solutions to reduce the manpower needed to manage Golden Dome, President Donald Trump's desired homeland missile defense architecture, the service's program executive officer for missiles and space said this week. As the Army contributes a large portion of the in-development air and missile defense architecture for Guam, it is looking to adapt those capabilities for a Golden Dome application, Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano told Defense News in an interview at Redstone Arsenal on Wednesday amid the Association of the U.S. Army's Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. Some of the Army's major contributions to the Guam Defense System include new modernized radars, an emerging Indirect Fire Protection Capability and its new Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS. 'What we're trying to do is three things,' Lozano said. 'We're wanting to integrate more AI-enabled fire control so that will help us reduce the manpower footprint. We're wanting to create more remotely operated systems so that we don't have to have so many operators and maintainers associated with every single piece of equipment that's out there.' And, he said, 'We need to have more autonomously operated systems.' Currently, the Army typically has a launcher with a missile and a launcher crew consisting of at least two to three soldiers. 'In the Golden Dome application, we would likely either have containerized missiles — think box of rockets — or we might actually put rockets and missiles in the ground,' Lozano said. Those systems would require less frequent upkeep, as a smaller manpower footprint means status checks might only happen every couple of weeks, and test checks would be conducted remotely, he said. In order to work on such capability, the Army is planning to use what it learns from maturing the Guam Defense System, which will become operational in roughly 2027 with Army assets. The service will also pivot its Integrated Fires Test Campaign, or IFTC, from a focus on testing the Guam architecture incrementally to how to inject autonomy and AI into those systems for Golden Dome beyond 2026. The IFTC in 2026 is considered the Guam Defense System 'Super Bowl,' Lozano said. Then, beyond 2027, he said, 'If we're called upon to support Golden Dome initiatives, we need to have those advanced AI, remotely operated, autonomous-based formations and systems ready to go.' To begin, the Army will be focused on defining the functions that human operators perform at all the operator terminals within an IBCS-integrated fire control center or at a particular launching station, Lozano said. Once those functions are defined, Lozano said, the Army will have to define the data sources that drive action. 'We have to create the decision rubric that assesses and analyzes that data that then drives a human decision, and then we have to code AI algorithms to be able to process that information and make the right decision,' Lozano said. 'There will be trigger points where the software has to say, 'I'm not authorized to make that level of decision. It's got to go back to the human and deliver.'' For the first time, the Army's Program Executive Office Missiles and Space is interacting with many new market entrants in the AI realm to work on the effort. For example, Lozano said he met this week at the Global Force Symposium with the French defense firm Safran. Safran, known for its assured position, navigation and timing capabilities, is planning a significant U.S. expansion. The defense firm provides capability for various Army missile programs, including Patriot air and missile defense systems and IBCS, as well as Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System and Precision Strike Missile programs. Lozano told the company he is looking for ways to reduce humans having to perform actions, such as verifying that timing data is synchronized with satellite timing. The Army has also begun discussions with Anduril, which, in early January, acquired the U. S. defense company Numerica, which happens to write the Army's IBCS fire control software. The service has discussed with Anduril how it can start looking at integrating more AI fire control functionality into its major air and missile defense command-and-control system. Part of the plan is focused on engaging with some nontraditional industry, such as venture capitalists and newly established small companies tackling these challenges, according to Lozano. The Army will spend the next six to nine months defining what it wants to look for from industry and then will begin hosting industry days and issuing requests for information, he said.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Army to make new missile-defense radars after year of troubleshooting
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is just weeks away from making a production decision for its new missile defense radar, following an extra year of ironing out any kinks, according to Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, the service's program executive officer for missiles & space. The Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, 'is a huge, significant capability,' Lozano said in an exclusive interview with Defense News at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. 'We anecdotally say it doubles legacy Patriot radar capability and not only does it double it, it provides you 360-degree capability.' The radar is a major modernization element for the Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense system along with a fully modernized command-and-control capability called the Integrated Battle Command System, which is already fielded. Building the radar rapidly – the Army awarded a contract to Raytheon in 2019 to deliver prototypes over five years – 'was always going to be incredibly technically challenging,' Lozano said. So, Lozano said he asked former Army acquisition chief Doug Bush for another year to mature the system. 'I said, 'Sir, we're really close, but we're just not there yet. I'm not exhibiting the level of performance that I would feel comfortable coming in for a Milestone C production decision,'' he said. Bush, who had the authority to grant such a request, did so, according to Lozano. The office continued to keep Army and Pentagon leadership apprised of the effort and now, following several successful flight tests, including one that combined other major air and missile defense elements over last fall and early this year, the system is deemed ready for low-rate initial production, Lozano said. While an Inspector General report recently criticized the program for lacking proper due diligence, Lozano disagreed with the characterization. 'We did provide the requisite oversight and so much so that we, as leaders, knew we needed a little bit more time for the system to mature. We got the time. We did the maturation.' The program office provided Army decision makers with a brief advocating to approve LTAMDS' for production at the end of February. 'It's our intent to have that signed in the next week or two,' he said. The Army's low-rate production lot will be roughly 10 radars. The service plans to build 94 radars total over the course of the program. Raytheon will also be building Poland's 10 LTAMDS radars on order simultaneously. Poland is the first foreign customer for the system. Currently the time to build an LTAMDS is about 40 months on the production line, Lozano said. But the Army is working with Raytheon and has hired the Boston Consulting Group to help work on supply chain management in order to make that 36 months, which is the formal program objective. 'From a cost perspective, I think there's a huge win here,' Lozano said. The program's estimated cost is now $13 billion across its life. 'It's a huge program, and it's likely going to be within the Army inventory for multiple decades. Because it's a digital radar that is software driven, it's going to mature and keep pace with the evolving threat,' he said. Lozano also noted that with the cost of microelectronics coming down and the efforts to miniaturize components, the level of efficiency will increase, capabilities will increase and costs will continue to come down for the system. 'We build the legacy Patriot radar for $110-$115 million a copy,' he noted. 'Right now the initial cost of the LTAMDS radar is about $125-$130 million a copy. That cost will continue to come down. We're building the newest, most advanced radar at almost the same exact price that we're building the legacy radar.' The Army low-rate production period will last roughly two-and-a-half years. The service is planning for the LTAMDS initial operational test and evaluation to take place in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. After that assessment, the service will send one of the sensors to Guam, which will join two other LTAMDS that are about to be delivered to the island in the coming months. The systems will be a part of a larger air and missile defense architecture there. The Army plans to reach full-rate production in 2028, Lozano said.
