9 January 2020:Northrop Grumman Corporation has received a $70 million, 28-month contract to transform the software development process for the US Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) to an agile development framework
According to the contract given by Aviation Missile Technology Consortium (AMTC), Northrop Grumman and the US Army will collaborate to prototype an agile development process in order to build, test and field capabilities faster to respond to current and emerging needs.
As part of the Agile Technical Insertion initiative, IBCS was designated among a number of high priority programmes to adopt an agile development methodology to allow maturation of the system.
"This contract brings IBCS into a new era of software development, enabling the rapid integration of new capabilities and improvements to further IBCS's survivable battle management architecture using an agile software development process," said Dan Verwiel, vice president and general manager, combat systems and mission readiness defense systems, Northrop Grumman. "By combining our industry leading capabilities in agile software development and DevSecOps with our extensive expertise on the IBCS programme, we can rapidly respond to warfighter requirements and bring innovative solutions to IBCS."
With its open systems architecture, IBCS permits incorporation of current and future sensors and effectors, and allows interoperability with joint C2 and the ballistic missile defence system. This modular open system architecture optimises the benefits of agile techniques and methodologies, including frequent, ongoing and rapid "agile sprints" to develop and test incremental software advancements. This transformational approach will allow greater responsiveness to current and evolving needs that support mission objectives and avoid costly rework later in the development cycle.
IBCS is designed to connect the force for unified action against evolving threats. It is a net-centric command and control system for the air and missile defense mission.
IBCS augments battlefield survivability by creating a resilient self-healing network of all available sensors that can decrease and eliminate vectors of attack while providing operators with a single integrated air picture of unprecedented accuracy and a broader defended area.
US Army Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama manages IBCS.