Poland’s MoND has declared IOC for the first IBCS-enabled battery of the country’s WISŁA medium range air defence programme.
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Northrop Grumman Press Release, Warsaw, 18 December 2024: In an important milestone for Northrop Grumman Corporation’s developed Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS), Poland’s Ministry of National Defence declared Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for the first IBCS-enabled battery of Poland’s WISŁA medium range air defence programme.
- With the deployment of IBCS, a US Army programme of record, Poland will now field one of largest, most capable air and missile defence forces in the world, with the ability to integrate air and missile defence across US and Polish forces during combined operations.
- A second battery is expected to achieve IOC by the end of this year.
- In February, the United States and Polish governments signed a letter of offer and acceptance for IBCS to also serve as the core battle management command and control system for Poland’s NAREW short range air defence programme in addition to phase two of the WISŁA medium range air defence programme.
Kenn Todorov, vice president and general manager, global battle management and readiness, Northrop Grumman: “Poland’s declaration of initial operational capability for IBCS proves the system’s readiness and groundbreaking capability to help warfighters defeat the complex threats of today and tomorrow. IBCS is seeing an increased demand from allies and partner nations worldwide looking to modernise their air and missile defence systems in our contested environment.”
Details on IBCS and the WISŁA and NAREW Programmes: In 2018, the Polish government selected IBCS to serve as the centrepiece for its WISŁA medium range air defence modernisation programme, becoming the first US ally to acquire the system. Poland declared Basic Operational Capability last year.
Prior to the LOA signed in February, Northrop Grumman and Poland’s Ministry of National Defence signed an offset agreement enhancing Polish defence capabilities through Northrop Grumman technology transfers that will help Polish industry to manufacture, integrate and test IBCS’ critical defence technologies.
The offset agreements will support Polish industry and their sovereign production and maintenance capabilities for NAREW and WISŁA by creating high-technology jobs for Poland in several fields, including engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics and maintenance support. Poland is working with the US government for deliveries of IBCS equipment racks and software to be installed in operations centres designed, manufactured and delivered in partnership with Polish industry. This delivery approach is tailorable and allows for significant industrial participation and adaptation to meet Poland’s unique air defence needs.
IBCS is a revolutionary command and control system that unifies current and future systems regardless of source, service or domain. Through its network enabled, modular, open and scalable architecture, IBCS gives warfighters capabilities they never had before by fusing sensor data for a single actionable picture of the full battlespace. This ready now capability gives warfighters more time to make decisions on how best to defeat threats and is a foundational element for enabling joint and coalition, multi-domain operations. IBCS is in production, being fielded in Poland, and planned for deployment in Defense of Guam as part of the US Army programme of record for integrated air and missile defence modernisation.
Northrop Grumman is a leading global aerospace and defence technology company. Our pioneering solutions equip our customers with the capabilities they need to connect and protect the world, and push the boundaries of human exploration across the universe. Driven by a shared purpose to solve our customers’ toughest problems, our employees define possible every day.
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