Missile defense

Army reworking enduring plans for indirect fires protection system

 The Army has been on a path to incrementally develop an Indirect Fires Protection Capability to defend against rockets, artillery and mortars and also cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft systems, but it’s taking this year to experiment with the makeup of an enduring system to decide what direction it will head, according to the service’s project manager for cruise missile defense systems with the Program Executive Office Missiles and Space.

There have been many efforts to develop certain capabilities within the greater system, such as qualifying interceptors and internally developing a Multi-Mission Launcher, but the Army has decided to take a breath to evaluate its direction, Col. Chuck Worshim told Defense News in a recent interview.

The Army is already having to shift its pots of funding around within the IFPC program to pay for two Iron Dome systems — manufactured by Israeli-based Rafael and Raytheon — to fill an urgent capability gap for cruise missile defense on an interim basis. Congress mandated the Army deploy two batteries by fiscal year 2020 in its FY19 budget.