WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army will quickly determine what’s subsequent for its two Iron Dome batteries, procured as an interim cruise missile protection functionality whereas the service builds its Oblique Fires Safety Functionality system, in line with officers answerable for missile protection modernization and fielding.
The Iron Dome system, produced by Israel’s Rafael Superior Protection Programs and American agency Raytheon Applied sciences, was deployed to Guam final 12 months from mid-October by November as a part of Operation Iron Island. The deployment was meant to check the system’s capabilities in addition to prepare and refine the deployment capabilities of air defenders.
The hassle additionally fulfilled the requirement within the fiscal 2019 Nationwide Protection Authorization Act that an Iron Dome battery deploy to an operational theater by the top of 2021.
That battery has since returned to the US, Maj. Gen. Mind Gibson, who’s answerable for the Army’s air and missile protection modernization, advised Protection News in a current interview. The techniques are presently primarily based with items at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Now the Army will determine the place to station the Iron Dome batteries — away from check ranges — over the subsequent a number of months.
“The Army has some choices and selections to determine if the place it’s presently situated is the place it finally will likely be situated or [temporarily] situated, and the Army will get to look by all these totally different choices in entrance of us,” Gibson mentioned.
The Army doesn’t plan to acquire extra Iron Dome techniques. As a substitute, it’s centered on growing and fielding a permanent Oblique Fires Safety Functionality, or IFPC, functionality to sort out threats from cruise missiles, drones, rockets, artillery and mortars, and thus defend mounted and semi-fixed websites.
The Army examined its capacity to deploy the Iron Dome from the U.S. after which return it as a way to higher be taught the transportation course of, Gibson mentioned.
In a deployment exterior of the continental United States, “you be taught a complete host of issues that apply no matter the place this factor is finally employed sooner or later,” he added, “to incorporate transportation issues, heights, widths, weights. … Till you bodily do it from a soldier perspective, the primary time is the primary time.”
The system additionally operated over an prolonged time period, longer than it did throughout earlier testing and assessments, Gibson mentioned. And the Army had an opportunity to see how Iron Dome performs in an island atmosphere in comparison with the desert.
The Army built-in Iron Dome with real-world communication and command-and-control architectures on Guam for the joint pressure. “These issues aren’t simply replicated in check environments in need of a full preliminary operational check and analysis and even a full operational check and analysis; that may be onerous to useful resource,” Gibson mentioned.
The service was additionally capable of see how Iron Dome match right into a layered, 360-degree strategy for air and missile protection with different Army and joint capabilities, he added.
Moreover, the deployment allowed the Army to make sure it has the required assist on the bottom for the gear and its operation, which additional helped develop techniques, strategies and procedures, Maj. Gen. Robert Rasch, the Army’s program government officer for missiles and area, mentioned in the identical interview.
The train didn’t reveal main points or gaps that might require important adjustments to the system or operational assist, Rasch famous, including there was nothing “insurmountable or to take us off the trail that the Army has put us on with this functionality.”
In the meantime, the Army is working with Dynetics on its design for the enduring IFPC system after it finalized a $247 million contract final 12 months with the Leidos-owned firm.
Dynetics will ship 16 launchers, 60 interceptors and related all-up-round magazines to the Army over a efficiency interval ending March 31, 2034. By the fourth quarter of FY23, the corporate will make 12 of these launchers accessible for the Army.
“Proper now, every thing’s on observe,” Rasch mentioned. “We’ve achieved a lot of design evaluations, that are a part of the deliverables. We need to be sure that the engineering has been achieved correctly, that the general component- and system-level structure is correct.”
The Army has held a lot of design evaluations with Dynetics, he added.
Later this 12 months, a number of the software program packages — to incorporate integration of the Built-in Battle Command System (the command-and-control system that can tie any sensor and shooter collectively on the battlefield) — will likely be delivered, he famous.
The primary IFPC launcher will likely be delivered within the fourth quarter of this 12 months as effectively, he mentioned, “to then be adopted by the extra launchers over a interval of about 4 or 5 months.”
This can permit the Army to start developmental testing main as much as an operational evaluation in FY23, Rasch mentioned, “to provide us that residual fight functionality.”
