Northrop Grumman will undertake a 28-month programme 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.

The company received a $70 million contract for the work in November 2019 from the Aviation Missile Technology Consortium.

Under the contract Northrop Grumman and the US Army will 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 enable maturation of the system.

With its open systems architecture, IBCS allows incorporation of current and future sensors and effectors, and enables 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 enable greater responsiveness to current and emerging needs that support mission objectives and avoid costly rework later in the development cycle.

IBCS is a net-centric C2 system for the air and missile defence mission. IBCS enhances battlefield survivability by creating a resilient self-healing network of all available sensors that can reduce and eliminate vectors of attack while providing operators with a single integrated air picture of unprecedented accuracy and a broader defended area.