IAMD Memo

In June, Inside the Army reported on a Pentagon decision made in February to allow the Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense Program to increase its inventory:

While the Army's cornerstone missile-defense program has cleared a critical design review in recent months, service officials are keeping the results of a new cost estimate, mandated by a February acquisition decision memorandum, under wraps.

The Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense program has undergone significant changes in recent years, leading to an increase in the Army's acquisition objective -- from 285 systems to 431 -- last summer. Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall approved the change in a Feb. 1 ADM.

The program represents the Army's contribution to a Defense Department-wide missile-defense network. At its heart lies a battle command system (IBCS), designed to enable a modular, "plug-and-fight" capability for commandeering sensors and interceptors.

Both the IBCS portions and the IAMD effort as a whole cleared design reviews this spring, moving the program into the second phase of engineering and manufacturing development, according to Army spokesman Matthew Bourke. Reviewers were said to be "pleased" with the program's progress, and a new cost estimate approved on April 24 led the service to consider the endeavor as "affordable," Bourke wrote in an email.

But what that means is unclear; service officials declined several requests for comment on what the Army's new cost estimate amounts to in dollars. That information is "pre-decisional and under a rolling review," said Bourke.

According to a June 11 statement by IBCS contractor Northrop Grumman, the design review showed that the program is "technically realistic and attainable." Moreover, it meant the program can meet performance requirements and is mature enough to proceed to "full-scale fabrication," assembly, integration and testing, the statement reads.

View the full story.

View the February ADM -- marked "for official use only".