Huntsville (Alabama): The US Army plans to send major elements of its most modernised air and missile defence capabilities to the Pacific and European theatres, according to Maj Gen Frank Lozano, program executive officer for missiles and space.
For example, the service will send two of its Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defence Sensors, or LTAMDS, to Guam.
Additionally, the Army will send an Indirect Fire Protection Capability platoon with prototype launchers to South Korea and will also send some of its Integrated Battle Command System capability to Europe to modernise a Patriot air defence battalion there.
Lozano had been tasked by Army Chief of Staff Gen Randy George to examine the possibility of sending new air and missile defence capabilities still in the prototype phase to global hotspots.
Both the Raytheon-developed LTAMDS and Leidos’ Dynetics-made IFPC have seen successful test events over the past year, leading to George’s push for testing advanced technology in real-life formations even before the development phase has formally concluded.
LTAMDS is nearing a production decision and will then go into initial operational test and evaluation that will wrap up in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. Another LTAMDS radar will be sent to Guam in 2027, which will put three of the powerful, 360-degree radars on the island as part of complete air and missile defence architecture there.
The Army is taking its two best performing prototypes, which are now being spruced up after developmental testing with Raytheon, and will begin preparing to ship the radars to Guam in May. They should arrive in June, Lozano said.
The service developed LTAMDS to replace the current radar in Patriot air and missile defence systems, improving its detection and discrimination capability and giving it the ability to see threats from 360 degrees.
The IFPC platoon will go to South Korea to help the Army work on concepts to create a composite air- and missile-defence battalion. This effort is being led by Brig Gen Pat Costello, commander of the 94th Army Air and Missile Defence Command in the Pacific theatre.
The IFPC system is designed to detect, track and defeat cruise missiles and drones as well as rockets, artillery and mortars at fixed and semi-fixed sites. It currently fires AIM-9X missiles but the Army is pursuing alternative interceptor options.
The Army is also taking some of its pre-low-rate initial production IBCS capability, which is a new command-and-control system for the service’s Patriot air and missile defence system, to modernise the 5-7 Patriot Air Defence Battalion in the 10th AAMDC in Europe.
IBCS equipment is now on a ship and will arrive next month, Lozano said. While this is the first IBCS capability to be received by a unit outside of the United States, Poland was the first to get the system for its own Patriot forces in 2023.
