According to Axios, the company invested $20 million in the EPIC facility, which spans 175,500 square feet, including 129,500 square feet of flexible production space. At the end of July, Northrop reported the completion of a contract with the Army for 35 engagement operation centres (EOC), 75 integrated fire control network relays (IFNC) and 32 integrated collaborative environments (ICE), all manufactured locally.
Northrop says the site has an annual capacity of producing 96 EOCs, 96 ICEs and 196 IFNC relays. The facility is equipped to handle component integration for the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS), which the company describes as “the centerpiece of the U.S. Army’s air and missile defense strategy.”
The EPIC facility “drastically improved our digital technologies and capabilities,” Jackson McAnally, a project manager, told Axios Huntsville. It “will allow us to continue to meet growing needs of IBCS, both for the U.S. government and our international allies, and to take on additional programs,” he said.
The space is designed for flexibility and scalability, with overhead cranes, power buses, modular floor setups and a streamlined storage layout. One new system is a vertical lift module, described by McAnally as “like a vending machine for parts,” which retrieves items in seconds from 68 customisable bins after a worker scans a barcode.
“There are a number of different threats you’ve got, like drones, fast-attack aircraft, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles,” said William Lamb, senior programmes director at Northrop Grumman. IBCS takes “all the available sensors to be able to acquire and track those threats as they’re inbound and then make a decision, potentially present to a soldier … this is the optimal engagement against that particular threat,” he added.
It remains uncertain how Golden Dome appropriations will develop, but Northrop expects more details from the Department of Defense. “The system is modular, it’s open, it’s network-enabled, so it can scale,” Lamb said. “IBCS is really ideally suited to be able to serve as the (command and control) architecture” for Golden Dome.
Source: Axios.
