IMAGE MADE JULY 14 - The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) announced July 15, 2001 it has successfully completed a test involving a planned intercept of an intercontinental ballistic missile target. The test took place over the central Pacific
IN PHOTO: The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) announced July 15, 2001 it has successfully completed a test involving a planned intercept of an intercontinental ballistic missile target. The test took place over the central Pacific Ocean. A modified Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) (shown here) was launched from Vandenberg AFB, California and a prototype interceptor was launched approximately 20 minutes later 4,800 miles away from the Ronald Reagan Missile Site Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The intercept took place approximately 10 minutes after the interceptor was launched, at an altitude in excess of 140 miles above the earth, and during the midcourse phase of the target warhead's flight. Reuters/HoNew

In order to tackle the rising number of security threats, the United States Army has proposed a single mix-and-match battle command system named as Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) that will cover a diverse set of sensors, launchers and missiles.

According to the top brass of the Army, the IBCS will act as a missile defense dashboard and control the existing interceptor, missile and artillery systems along with futuristic weapons like lasers and electromagnetic pulse weapons, reports Defense News.

“We will never have enough interceptors in our quiver, and that's why I would say we need to add a level of sophistication to the way we look at the threat,” said Lt. Gen. David Mann, commander of Space and Missile Defense Command.

Networked Mission Command

A recent meeting of the Association of the United States Army panel on Feb. 12 also discussed the issue and brainstormed on how the U.S could leverage a networked mission command. It analysed the threats from a variety of air and missile sources, which are already evolving and fast proliferating.

According to Brig. Gen. Christopher L. Spillman, commandant of the Army Air Defense Artillery School, adversaries are trying to exploit the weaknesses in America's air and missile defense system. The Army press release said Spillman and other missile defense experts analysed the issue and discussed how adversaries are employing their own ballistic missile capabilities and coordinating them with cruise missile and unmanned aerial systems. So, the meeting called for appropriate efforts towards "complex and integrated actions."

Air-defense Advantage

Spillman said the Army wanted to regain its air-defense advantage and "move beyond current limited-point-defense.” This can be done only by mitigating the vulnerabilities in the Air and Missile Defense systems emanating from the current "inflexible, stove-piped command and control systems."

Maj. Gen. Ole A. Knudson, program executive for the Program and Integration wing of Missile Defense Agency, said the present scenario is such that each military service is running its own AMD architecture, which is not "entirely compatible" with one another.

The new architecture, according to Spillman, will be more than a physical network of fibre, relays, routers and servers. It will be about connectivity among sensors, radars, launchers and shooters so that the systems can communicate seamlessly across the battlespace and engage the enemy with ease and reduce the risk of possible errors.

Evolving IBCS

The services are moving in the direction of gearing up to work together in an integrated mode of Air and Missile Defense networks and mission-command to function through IBCS, Spillman said. He claimed the evolution of IBCS will grant the combatant commanders and AMD a flexibility that does not exist today.

Daniel J. Verwiel, vice president of integrated air and missile defense for Northrop Grumman Information Systems, commented that IBCS will ultimately lead to handing off AMD “to the best possible shooter,” no matter it is from a ship or the shore.

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