Redstone Rocket:
Some members of the Army weapons community quietly noted a first anniversary in early August.
Aug. 8 marked a year since development of the System of Systems Integration laboratory in support of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability, Increment 2-Intercept. IFPC Inc 2-I is a new mobile, ground-based air defense weapon system that will be designed to acquire, track, engage and defeat unmanned aircraft systems, cruise missiles and rockets, artillery and mortars. It’s the Army’s strategy for meeting these emerging threats and addressing the aging Avenger fleet.
“The lab is basically our focal point for IFPC Inc 2-I integration,” said Lt. Col. Mike Fitzgerald, IFPC Inc 2-1 product manager in the Cruise Missile Defense Systems Project Office, Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space.
The System of Systems Integration Lab is located in the sprawling complex at the Software Engineering Directorate, part of the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center. Members of the IFPC product office worked with the center to develop this capability. The catalyst was Randy Mann, who leads the product office’s software engineering team.
“This provides early integration, early risk reduction for this system of systems,” Mann said. “Identifying issues early, fixing them early and reducing risk.”
The system integration lab serves as the IFPC Inc 2-I program’s “single point of system of systems integration and test,” Mann said. “This arrangement streamlines development processes, shortens development time and reduces cost and risk.”
The government-owned, government-developed lab operates daily. The 40-by-40-foot structure has a growing inventory of computers, according to lab member Jim DeLary. It communicates with other Redstone facilities to provide end-to-end integration for the IFPC Inc 2-I program.
“We connected existing facilities on Redstone Arsenal that we didn’t have to build,” Mann said. “Not only did we save cost, we saved time.”
“We do have a very aggressive schedule,” Fitzgerald added. “So time savings is really of value.”
A rollout ceremony for the first prototype IFPC Inc 2-I Multi-Mission Launcher is scheduled in September. The system is in the technology maturation and risk reduction phase, approaching the engineering and manufacturing development phase in June. A demonstration is planned in early 2016 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, to demonstrate the IFPC Inc 2-I system of systems capability.
Nick Shores, liaison between the lab and the integrated virtual engagement simulation testbed, showed a video of a simulated missile firing which is part of the preparations for the actual launches at White Sands. “Instead of launching a real missile, we launch a virtual missile,” Shores explained…
