U.S. Army soldiers successfully tested the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS). Referred to as a Soldier Checkout Event (SCOE), the tests took place at Tobin Wells in Fort Bliss, Texas over the course of three weeks in August. According to a Northrop Grumman statement, IBCS fought “26 simulated air battles against hundreds of tactical ballistic missile threats.” Testing concluded with a 72-hour endurance run of IBCS that included 18 additional air battles. The software deficiencies found in a Limited User Test last year reportedly “have been resolved.”

Brig. Gen. Randall McIntire, commandant, Army Air Defense Artillery School, and chief, Air Defense Artillery, explains the importance of IBCS for the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) program: “It is going to open up the aperture in terms of how we will be able to fight in the future. What we are working on today will be key for decades to come in our ability to combine offensive and defensive fires into one entity that is fast and agile.”