HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — With Huntsville a hub for all things missile defense, there's no surprise that Northrop Grumman is working on technology at its Rocket City campus that could help protect Americans for decades to come. Monday, company officials offered members of the military a firsthand look at the newest advances in technology for their Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS.
The development phase of the project is now complete and is moving into the production phase.
"IBCS will literally transform how the U.S. Army fights," said Ian Reynolds, Vice President with N-G's C4 Missile Defense Unit. "It will provide a common operating picture for the soldiers; an operating picture that is built through the fusion of fire control quality data from networked sensors."
Program Director Michael Hahn continues, "It brings those sensor inputs together, calculates how to use that data to intercept adversaries' threats against us."
In lay terms, it will better track missile threats and shoot them safely out of the sky.
"It's a key system in terms of defending our assets, warfighters, and soldiers," said Hahn.
Alex Redden is the principal engineer for the project. "I sit between engineering and production," she explained. "I handle most of the material on this program. As engineering comes up with their design, I'm helping get that material on order so that we can build."
She, like the IBCS program itself, were both born and rooted here in Huntsville.
"We expect to be around for the next 30 years," said Redden. "To know that you are a part of a program that will be here long-term and that you'll get to see fielded, is really inspiring."
We asked Hahn about the long-term benefits of developing this integral part of the system here in Huntsville.
"For the Army, it's the cornerstone of their air and missile defense modernization," Hahn said. "Just in Huntsville, we have a couple hundred direct employees at Northrop that work this program. A number of those partners and teammates are local as well. So it accounts for hundreds of high-skilled, strong jobs."
Hahn said 12 additional states employ hundreds more workers in connection with the IBCS project.
The Northrop Grumman display was scheduled one day ahead of the Army's Global Force Symposium and Exposition, which is also being held in Huntsville.