Defense News

The Army is planning to conduct a shoot-off to evaluate the best options for a future indirect fires protection capability to defend against rockets, artillery and mortars as well as cruise missile and unmanned aircraft system threats, according to a report sent to Congress and obtained by Defense News.

The shoot-off that will take place at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, is fashioned much in the same way the Army recently conducted its “sense-off” in order to choose a new air-and-missile defense radar that will replace the sensor in the Army’s current Patriot system, Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson, who is in charge of the Army’s Air-and-Missile Defense modernization, told Defense News in a March 9 interview.

The Army has been trying to formulate its enduring Indirect Fires Protection Capability Increment 2 (IFPC Inc 2) system for several years and purchased two Rafael-Raytheon developed Iron Dome batteries to serve as an interim solution for cruise missile defense, which was congressionally mandated. Those batteries will be delivered by the end of the year, Gibson said.

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