U.S. Army awards Northrop $1.4B contract for battle command system

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. Army awarded Northrop Grumman a $1.4 billion contract for both low-rate initial production and full-rate production of its future battle command system, according to a Dec. 23 Pentagon contract announcement, Defense News reports.

“This award represents the first significant competition for this major defense acquisition program since the 2009 award of the engineering and manufacturing development contract” to Northrop Grumman, a Dec. 23 Army statement notes.

The service received two bids, according to the DoD announcement. The estimated completion date for the contract is Dec. 22, 2026.

The Army’s Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS, will link sensors and shooters across the battlefield. It was cleared for production in January 2021.

The program has cost the Army roughly $2.7 billion to develop to date and was originally meant to serve only as the command-and-control system for the Army’s future Integrated Air-and-Missile Defense System against regional ballistic missile threats. But the service has since expanded its role to tie together a broad array of sensors and shooters capable of defeating other complex threats, such as cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft.