US Army Developing Missile Defense Dashboard: In the worst nightmares of the US military's missileers, a foreign foe hits the homeland with a complex barrage of ballistic and cruise missiles, armed UAVs, decoys and electronic attacks, forcing the nation's stove-piped missile defense systems into a dizzying game of whack-a-mole.
To give the US Army a single mix-and-match battle command system for its disparate sensors, launchers and missiles, it is developing the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS). Like a missile defense dashboard, IBCS would one day control existing interceptor, missile and artillery systems along with futuristic laser, microwave and electromagnetic pulse weapons still in development, officials say.
"We will never have enough interceptors in our quiver, and that's why I would say we need to add a level of sophistication to the way we look at the threat," said Army Lt. Gen. David Mann, commander of Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT). "It needs to be more than just a metal on metal application."
Space and Missile Defense Command's R&D efforts include the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator program, designed to defeat short-range aerial threats, like rockets, mortars and one day, perhaps, missiles. In 2013, it destroyed mortars and UAVs, and now efforts are focused on upgrading its power from 10 kilowatts to 50 or 100 kilowatts.
The command has successfully tested an electromagnetic pulse weapon with a 20-kilometer range to defeat roadside bombs, Mann said, adding that preliminary tests against UAVs have been, "very, very promising."
