Army photo

Patriot missile launch

WASHINGTON: Army soldiers in the southwest desert are getting ready to “knock something out of the sky” in live-fire tests of two critical new systems, the service’s director of air & missile defense modernization said. The IBCS command network is already tracking aerial targets on radar over White Sands Missile Range, Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson told me, and it will start shooting Patriot missiles at them in the second week of August. The IM-SHORAD anti-aircraft vehicle — which mounts Stinger missiles, Hellfires, a 30 mm cannon, and compact radar on an 8×8 armored Stryker — will start its live-fire tests soon after.

Army photo

Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson talks to troops

Both systems are being operated, not by contractors or Army testing experts, but by regular soldiers from the actual combat units slated to receive the new weapons when they’re ready. For IBCS, Gibson said, that’s a battery from the 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery regiment (“3-43”) out of Fort Bliss, Tex., which currently operates the Patriot system, but without the network connection to other kinds of Army radars and launchers that IBCS will provide. For IM-SHORAD, it’s a platoon from 5th Battalion, 4th ADA Regiment (“5-4”) out of Annsbach, Germany, which currently uses Stinger missiles carried either by hand or on Humvees, which lack the armored protection and cross-country mobility of the new Strykers.

These tests come after decades of post-Cold War neglect of battlefield air defense, when the Army fought enemies who had no attack helicopters or fighter-bombers, just the occasional unguided rocket and, in recent years, mini-drones. It was the Russian invasion of Crimea that forced the Army to refocus on high-tech foes. In October 2017, Gen. Mark Milley – then Army Chief of Staff, now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs – announced a sweeping modernization program with new weapons ranging from long-range artillery to rifles. “But none of that’s going to matter if you’re dead,” Milley said, which is why his Big Six priorities included new air & missile defense systems.

The ongoing tests also follow a delay this summer of roughly two months, required to set up multi-layered defenses against COVID-19 for the hundreds of combat troops, test technicians, and other personnel gathering at White Sands. Brig. Gen. Gibson said only a handful of personnel had tested positive for coronavirus so far and all were quickly isolated.

Gibson spoke to Breaking Defense as an exclusive preview of his upcoming remarks to Tuesday’s Space & Missile Defense conference. SMD’s grand annual gathering of the air & missile defense community will be held entirely online this year, because of the pandemic.

Northrop Grumman photo

The mobile command post for the Army’s new IBCS air and missile defense network.

A Crucial Test For IBCS 2.0

IBCS – an awkward nested acronym for IAMD (Integrated Air and Missile Defense) Battle Command System – will be the electronic nervous system for the future air and missile defense force, allowing formerly separate systems like Patriot and THAAD to share targeting data with split-second timing. Future versions may evolve beyond just linking Army systems to plug in the Air Force and Navy as well. It’s been the top-priority program for Army air & missile defenders for years.

Northrop Grumman graphic

A simplified (yes, really) overview of the Army’s IBCS command-and-control network for air and missile defense.

Now IBCS is finally going through its official Limited User Test ahead of this fall’s formal Milestone C review, where Army officials will decide whether or not to move ahead to mass production. An earlier LUT, in 2016, had so many software crashes and other problems that the program was delayed by years and thoroughly reorganized. That makes this second LUT all the more crucial for IBCS 2.0.

The Limited User Test runs two and a half months – longer if COVID, weather, or technical glitches intervene – and is broken into four phases, Brig. Gen. Gibson explained:

  1. Simulated targets, July 7-24: With the troops and equipment in place at White Sands, testers hooked up the IBCS system to simulators, checking how it handled the influx of data from a host of different scenarios. “We’ve finished Phase 1 and met all the test objectives,” Gibson said.
  2. Live targets, July 25 though Aug. 7: This phase is ongoing. The radars connected to IBCS are now picking up actual, physical targets flying over White Sands, then feeding that real-world data over the network to the IBCS mobile command post and the Patriot batteries.
  3. Live fire, Aug. 8-23: In this phase, the IBCS network will send the Patriot launchers not just targeting data, but orders to fire. In each of two separate live-fire events about a week apart, the system will track multiple targets and engage them with multiple Patriot missiles. Details are classified, but Gibson said each scenario would involve a mix of different threats. (We’d speculate that probably means both drones and surrogate cruise missiles).
  4. Cyber/Electronic warfare testing, Aug. 24-Sept. 20: After testing IBCS against physical threats, Gibson said, the Army will check how the network holds up against challenges in cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum, along with other technical issues.

All the upcoming dates here are subject to change, Gibson cautioned, given the complexities of testing high tech in the real world. “The weather gets a vote — it is monsoon season out in the southwest,” he said. “COVID gets a vote. [And] there’s always Murphy out there.”

The IM-SHORAD prototype anti-aircraft Stryker test-fires a Hellfire missile in February, 2020.

IM-SHORAD On Maneuvers

While IBCS is the brains and nerves of the future air and missile defense force, IM-SHORAD is its trench knife. In the 1990s and 2000s, the Army upgraded Patriot and fielded THAAD to shoot down high-flying ballistic missiles at long range. But for Short Range Air Defense of frontline forces against enemy helicopter gunships, attack jets, and (nowadays) drones, the Army still relies on the Cold War-era Stinger – made famous by the Afghan mujahideen – mounted on lightly protected Humvees, a combination called Avenger. The goal of the Interim Maneuver-SHORAD program is to rapidly mount a wider array of weapons on a tougher vehicle.

Redstone Arsenal photo

Avenger anti-aircraft missile vehicle.

That’ll take some training for the troops to get used to, Brig. Gen. Gibson said, which is why the actual unit set to receive the first IM-SHORAD vehicles already has troops training on them at White Sands. The soldiers are already well-versed in air defense tactics, he explained, but they need to add Hellfires and 30 mm autocannon to their arsenal alongside the familiar Stingers. They need to learn how to maintain the more complicated Stryker and how to maneuver the 20-plus-ton, eight-wheel-drive machine over rough ground that would defeat their current 4×4 Humvees. And they need to practice tactics that exploit the Strykers’ superior mobility and armor protection to operate much closer to the front line.

To do that, the Army is bringing a reinforced company of mechanized infantry to White Sands – over 100 soldiers mounted in more than a dozen M2 Bradley armored transports – to train alongside the four prototype Strykers of the IM-SHORAD platoon.

As with IBCS, the IM-SHORAD field test is broken into phases, with Army testing technicians embedded with the combat troops throughout:

  • Maneuver, July 20-Oct. 26: The Stryker platoon has already started training to operate and maintain their new vehicles, Gibson said. Soon they’ll get “out of the motor pool” and onto the ranges at White Sands to maneuver – first as a four-vehicle platoon, then in conjunction with the Bradley company.
  • Live fire, Nov. 2- Dec. 18: After their combined-arms training with the Bradleys, the Stryker crews will move on to live-fire shots against aerial targets. For safety reasons, this phase is much more restricted than the free-ranging field maneuvers.

The feedback from the troops and testers at White Sands will inform the Army’s decision to buy the IM-SHORAD vehicle in bulk and fielding it to combat units. “We still are on track, by the end of this fiscal year, to make a recommendation to Army senior leadership on whether or not to proceed with buying the first battalion set of these prototypes,” Gibson told me. The overall plan is to field 144 vehicles, enough for four battalions, by mid-2023.

Now, IM-SHORAD and IBCS are far from the Army’s only air & missile defense programs, just the ones furthest along. This fall should also see the delivery of the first Iron Dome anti-rocket battery from Israel, construction of prototype LTAMDS radars, and R&D on high-powered lasers. You can read more from Brig. Gen. Gibson and other top officials in upcoming stories, part of our ongoing preview coverage for Tuesday’s Space & Missile Defense conference.