The prime is one of two shortlisted companies selected to participate in the Commonwealth of Australia’s AIR 6500 Competitive Evaluation Process to lead the design, development and delivery of the JABMS.

The JABMS is designed to synchronise air and missile defence operations, improving situational awareness and enhancing the speed of decision making via connecting separate Defence systems and platforms across all domains into an integrated operational environment.

According to Christine Zeitz, general manager, Northrop Grumman Asia-Pacific, the JABMS solution is expected to be a major situational awareness asset for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

“Our Australian-led team brings Northrop Grumman’s best-of-breed, all-domain C2 technology from the US together with the best of Australian engineering.

“Northrop Grumman Australia’s JABMS solution will provide an advantage to the Australian Defence Force through delivering a contemporary, sovereign solution that is able to defeat today’s threats and evolve to better meet the battlespace challenges of the future.

“I congratulate all members of our team, including our Australian industry partners, Nova Systems, Silentium, Daronmont and AOS Group, for their significant contribution to our Australian-led, world-class JABMS solution,” Zeitz said.

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Northrop Grumman Australia’s JABMS solution is expected to draw on the company’s all-domain command and control expertise in developing and demonstrating the US Army’s Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS).

In August, Northrop Grumman Australia put the fifth-generation JABMS to the test as part of a demonstration to the AIR 6500 Program Office in the Department of Defence and the Commonwealth government’s AIR 6500 Competitive Evaluation Process.

At the time, the demonstration reportedly provided a “complete overview” of the battlespace, which involved real-time operational scenarios that were aimed at showcasing the command-and-control functions of the capability. 

Northrop Grumman Australia made significant steps to reduce key risks to delivering their proposed JABMS solution over 12 months, according to Zeitz at the time. 

The JABMS is expected to leverage an open, modular and scalable architecture to integrate all available assets in the battlespace, regardless of source, service or domain to support “genuine risk reduction” to the future JABMS capability for the ADF.

A government decision is expected in 2023, with the prime competing against Lockheed Martin Australia for the contract.

[Related: Rohde & Schwarz completes AIR 5431 work]