Q: I understand that the U.S. Army will soon be green-lighting a development program designed to transform its disparate air and missile defense systems into an adaptable and coherent air and missile defense task force capability. What role will Raytheon have in the program?

A: The program is called the Integrated Battle Command System [IBCS] and features a modular system-of-systems construct that allows warfighters to use any weapons system with any sensor input within an integrated fire control network. Air and missile defense systems include the Patriot missile defense system, JLENS [Joint Land-Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System], SLAMRAAM [Surface-Launched Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile], as well as the THAAD [Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense] radar—all solutions produced by Raytheon.

Along with our team of expert partners, we are one of two competitors vying for the program’s prime contractor status. The contract will be awarded by the Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command in a two-part rolling down-select. The first selection, scheduled for late August, will identify contractors to conduct the preliminary design for the IBCS. Two contractor teams will be selected during this initial phase, which will culminate in a preliminary design review by each team. The reviews will contribute to a subsequent down-select to a single contractor in late 2009.

Q: Based on that what does Raytheon bring to the table that gives it the competitive advantage?

A: Our experience in air and missile defense systems gives the team an important advantage over the competition. What sets us apart is our deep intimate knowledge of the weapons systems that are part of the architecture: Patriot, SLAMRAAM, JLENS, THAAD. Raytheon’s decades-long track record of developing battle-proven sensors and interceptors along with effective systems engineering and command-and-control solutions allows us, with much lower operational and technical risk, to integrate these and achieve IBCS capabilities on schedule, with the lowest cost.

We’ve been intimately involved in this business for many years and we have immense pride in our long history of providing most of the U.S. Army’s current air and missile defense warfighting capability. We consider ourselves on the cutting edge in both thought and execution on behalf of the warfighter.

Q: What other companies round out your team?

A: We have a purposely constructed complementary team that brings best-in-industry capabilities together to meet IBCS needs, and include General Dynamics, Teledyne Brown Engineering, IBM, Davidson Technologies and Carlson Engineering. General Dynamics offers the communications network—specifically, Warfighter Information Network Tactical [WIN-T]—and their information assurance architecture and a capability called Command Post of the Future that integrates a myriad of commandand- control entities for the Army.

Teledyne Brown provides extended air defense simulation [EADSIM] capability, which has been used by air and missile defense for decades.

Davidson Technologies, a system engineering house with an extensive history working with the air and missile defense industry, is involved in selecting best-ofbreed components for IBCS.

Finally, Carlson Engineering is known for what’s called soldier-first design—an engineering method in which mechanical solutions are developed around the soldiers’ needs, as opposed to building a box and then making the soldier adapt to the box.

Q: How important will modeling and simulation be in project development and solution validation?

A: A significant ally in our pursuit of the IBCS contract is the company’s state-ofthe- art demonstration environment, JFires, short for Joint Force Interoperability and Requirements Evaluation SupraCenter. Located at IDS headquarters in Tewksbury, Mass., JFires is a mission-driven prototyping and evaluation environment capability. It’s used to help develop, test and evaluate joint warfighter capabilities in a highly cost-effective manner. Assessments produced in the JFires environment reduce technical risk, thereby enabling the company to maximize the effectiveness of subsequent field testing.

Q: How would you characterize your chances to win the contract award?

A: When all is said and done, what will propel Raytheon to the top? I believe the edge lies in our “ability to provide capability to the warfighter faster and more efficiently because of our extensive expertise with the systems that comprise the IBCS architecture. No other company can make such a compelling statement.

I’ve watched our team very closely as it has planned and prepared for this program. The team is simply amazing in its ability to understand warfighter requirements and provide out-of-the-box thinking and cuttingedge solutions. I’m extremely proud to be associated with this tremendously professional and totally committed team. ♦