Latest GMD upgrade focuses on multi-domain C2

12th August 2021 - 11:35 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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Lockheed Martin is to improve the GMD system by enhancing the C2BMC element. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)

C2BMC enhancement should result in a single composite threat picture for US missile defence.

The Missile Defense Agency has awarded Lockheed Martin a $157 million contract to further augment the Command, Control, Battle Management Communications (C2BMC) element of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system.

C2BMC has undergone various upgrades since its first deployment in 2004.

Instead of the current method of engaging a threat with the best single-source data from multiple radars, the Spiral 8.2-7 upgrade for C2BMC will provide the GMD system with a ‘single, real-time, composite picture’ of threat tracks, Lockheed Martin noted in a 10 August announcement.

This picture is created by correlating and fusing data from a broader set of sensors, including satellites, ground-based radars and shipboard radars.

‘Once the spiral upgrade is complete, the GMD system will see the same battlespace picture currently seen by combatant commanders,’ Lockheed Martin claimed. Additionally, Spiral 8.2-7 will also enable C2BMC to report hypersonic threat activity into the Link 16 tactical data link network.