Northrop Grumman's new facility is Golden Dome-ready
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Photo: Courtesy of Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman's new Madison manufacturing site is positioning the company to take advantage of the country's focus on air and missile defense.
Why it matters: This is one of the ways Golden Dome and other military initiatives are driving jobs and investment in Huntsville.
Catch up quick: The Enhanced Production and Integration Center (EPIC), which opened in April in Madison, is equipped to manage component integration for the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS).
- The company invested $20 million in the facility, with 175,500 square feet of production area, of which 129,500 is flexible production space.
- At the end of July, Northrop says, it completed the delivery of major end items under a contract with the Army for: 35 engagement operation centers (EOC), 75 integrated fire control network relays (IFNC) and 32 integrated collaborative environments (ICE), all made locally.
- Per Northrop Grumman, the EPIC facility has an annual capacity of producing 96 EOCs, 96 ICEs and 196 IFCN relays.
What they're saying: The facility "drastically improved our digital technologies and capabilities," Jackson McAnally, a project manager for the facility, told Axios Huntsville during a recent tour.
- 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 to be flexible and scalable, with overhead cranes, power buses, modular floor setups and a streamlined storage layout.
One of those new systems is a vertical lift module storage system, like a vending machine for parts, McAnally says.
- A worker scans a barcode work order and the machine takes 30 seconds to retrieve the first item, then 10 seconds for each remaining item from among 68 customizable storage bins.
Zoom in: IBCS, described by Northrop Grumman as "the centerpiece of the U.S. Army's air and missile defense strategy," is a command and control system that integrates all the different sensors and other assets encountered on the battlefield.
- "There are a number of different threats you've got, like drones, fast-attack aircraft, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles," said William Lamb, senior programs director for 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 said.
What we're watching: It's unclear exactly what shape Golden Dome appropriations will take, but Lamb said Northrop Grumman anticipates the Department of Defense to begin sharing more information with the industry.
- "The system is modular, it's open, it's network-enabled, so it can scale," he said. "IBCS is really ideally suited to be able to serve as the (command and control) architecture" for Golden Dome.