Dedicated drone munitions could unlock modular mission potential
Top attacks have proven effective against heavily armoured vehicles in Ukraine. A new family of uncrewed aerial system-delivered munitions is looking to press that advantage further.
New data link ties Patriot missile into Integrated Battle Command System
The Patriot was used with a new combination of battle command software and data links to successfully engage cruise missile targets. (Image: Lockheed Martin)
A combination of Northrop Grumman's IBCS and a Lockheed Martin data link contributed towards successful Patriot interception of cruise missile surrogate targets.
During two separate tests at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, Northrop Grumman's Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) was integrated with new networked sensor and effector combinations.
The first live target engagement involved three Raytheon AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radars tracking a cruise missile target across the range.
IBCS then engaged this target using the Lockheed Martin Remote Interceptor Guidance (RIG-360) prototype as uplink to a Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missile. This followed internal R&D work at Northrop Grumman’s to integrate RIG-360 with IBCS.
The RIG-360 successfully communicated with the in-flight PAC-3 to test its data link capabilities. RIG-360 enables a 360-degree PAC-3 engagement capability utilising target data from various sensors.
The success of this test removes the dependency of the Patriot radar in IBCS architecture to provide the communication link to and from the interceptor, according to Northrop Grumman.
During the second live test, a ground-launched cruise missile surrogate was detected, tracked, engaged and destroyed using IBCS. Again using a Patriot Interceptor, IBCS created a fire quality track and common operating picture.
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