IBM joins General Dynamics C4 Systems, Davidson Technologies, Inc., and Raytheon on Team IBCS, which will leverage its combined domain expertise while employing innovative, industrywide best practices to provide the Army with a transformational, affordable and extensible air defense solution for integrated air and missile defense.

"Team IBCS brings together the innovators in our industry, academia, and large and small business to ensure the Army gets an affordable, best-of-breed IBCS solution by 2011," said Pete Franklin, vice president for Integrated Air and Missile Defense, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems.  "Our open business model process, which we call OpenAIR(TM), enables all team members to contribute significantly in this effort."

The goal of the Integrated Battle Command System is to provide an open architecture that enables the warfighter to take advantage of any sensor and any shooter integrated fire control network.  The Armys vision is to move toward a network-centric system-of-systems capability for integrating sensors, shooters, and battle management command, control, communications and intelligence systems for Army air and missile defense.

"IBM brings open architecture enterprise integration and supply chain skills and experience to the IBCS team," said Chuck Prow, general manager for IBMs Global Business Services supporting the Department of Defense.  "IBMs skills and experience complement Raytheons deep domain knowledge. Together, we can provide our 21st century air defenders with the advanced command and control capabilities they require."

Integrated Defense Systems is Raytheons leader in Joint Battlespace Integration providing affordable, integrated solutions to a strong international and domestic customer base, including the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Armed Forces and the Department of Homeland Security.