ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 27 (UPI) -- The first Medium Extended Air Defense System Battle Manager is ready for systems integration in Italy in the lead up to system flight tests in 2012.
Five more Battle Managers are being assembled to support integration, test and qualification activities for the flight test series, project officials reported.
MEADS is multinational project with headquarters in Orlando, Fla. MEADS International's participating companies are MBDA in Italy, LFK in Germany and Lockheed Martin in the United States.
Using standardized interfaces and a revolutionary network-centric open architecture, the MEADS Battle Manager can command and control both MEADS and non-MEADS sensors and launchers.
Through a capability called "plug-and-fight," sensors, launchers and other battle managers simply act as nodes on the MEADS network. A commander can dynamically add or subtract elements as the situation dictates without shutting the system down. This flexibility is a first for ground-based air and missile defense systems.
"We're very proud of our battle manager team for achieving this significant milestone, which realizes the visionary requirements given to the MEADS program," said MEADS International Technical Director Claudio Ponzi. "The MEADS architecture and Battle Manager provide capability to integrate unlimited combinations of sensors and weapons into a single network."
