NORTHROP GRUMMAN

IBCS (Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System) Goes Agile.

A year ago, after the U.S. Department of Defense called for a movement to Agile development methodologies, one of the Northrop Grumman IBCS software teams was part of a pilot program with the U.S. Army. The experience and results were well received and, last November, the Army awarded a $70 million, 28-month contract to transform the entire IBCS software development process to an Agile framework.

Under the contract, Northrop Grumman and the Army are partnering to prototype an Agile development process in order to build, test and field capabilities faster to respond to current and emerging needs.

“We’ve been developing and delivering software to the Army under our Agile framework for months,” said Kim Robbins, Northrop Grumman software lead for IBCS. “One of the reasons for our success has been the partnership with our customer in creating our quick feedback loop.”

Regular feedback among the team members and the customer is a core tenet of Agile methodology, which involves the delivery of products or capabilities in regular Program Increments (PIs). For IBCS, they are three-month PIs, comprised of three-week “sprints” in which each team tackles their specific tasks and issues required to deliver. A product owner from the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense office is a member of the team.

“Before Agile, it wasn’t unusual to wait a month or more to learn whether your ‘bug fix’ or software change worked well for the warfighters who will use IBCS,” said engineer Josh Bagwell, of the Support Operations (SO) software team. “Now, through quick communication with a soldier, we bounce ideas off each other. It helps us ‘fail fast, fail early’ so time isn’t wasted on a bad idea.”

“The regular communication with soldiers helps busy IBCS team members see themselves and their work in the Army’s mission,” said IBCS Deputy Program Director Alana Henley. She has also noticed another benefit as the mindset shift accompanying Agile has empowered the engineers.

“Because of the regular communication and the development atmosphere, I’ve seen entry-level engineers become more comfortable raising issues and talking with their more experienced peers,” Alana explained. “They’re embracing ownership of problems and signing up for work, and that’s a big deal.”

In their first sprint after the contract award last fall, the teams developed software that was used in IBCS Flight Test 5 at White Sands Missile Range in December 2019 — the most complex flight test to date, in which two target cruise missiles were intercepted simultaneously by the soldiers at the system’s controls.

“Northrop Grumman has long been an Agile pioneer, transforming processes to speed development while increasing communication with customer end-users and increasing quality,” said Mark Rist, Northrop Grumman IBCS, program director. “We are shifting the paradigm, because every aspect of the program can benefit from the increased communication and incremental nature of Agile.”

https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/features/ibcs-goes-agile

Victory Ahoy!!

>>9165076

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>>9164959

News

Maritime Standoff Between China And Malaysia Winding Down

A standoff between China and Malaysia over potential natural gas and oil reserves beneath the South China Sea appears to be ending as research vessels from both nations moved away from each other following stepped-up U.S. Navy presence in the last several weeks.

On Tuesday, West Capella, a Panamanian-flagged drillship hired by Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas, completed its scheduled work in a part of the South China Sea also claimed by Vietnam and China, according to a report by Reuters.

For several weeks this spring, West Capella was tailed by China’s government-owned research vessel Haiyang Dizhi 8 and armed Chinese coast guard and China Maritime Militia vessels, Reuters reported.

To counter the implied threat posed by China’s armed ships, USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10), USS Montgomery (LCS-8) and USNS Cesar Chavez (T-AKE-14) conducted presence operations near West Capella. In late April, USS America (LHA-6), USS Bunker Hill (CG-52) and USS Barry (DDG-52) sailed with the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Parramatta (FFH-154) in the same part of the South China Sea.

“There is no better signal of our support for a free and open Indo-Pacific than positive and persistent U.S. naval engagement in this region,” Rear Adm. Fred Kacher, the commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 7, said in a Navy news release.

As of Wednesday, the Chinese ships appeared heading in a different direction from West Capella and a nearby Malaysian naval auxiliary ship, KA Bunga Mas 5, according to publicly available ship tracking data.

Last year, Haiyang Dizhi 8 was involved in a similar standoff with the Vietnamese drilling ship Hakuryu 5, in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone near the Fiery Reef, according to a December report by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The standoff started in June and lasted for months, according to CSIS. During this time, Haiyang Dizhi 8 was escorted by Chinese Coast Guard ships and other Maritime Militia ships. The CSIS report concludes Haiyang Dizhi 8’s survey area “closely matched a group of oil and gas exploration blocks that the China National Offshore Oil Corporation unsuccessfully offered up for foreign bidding in 2012.”

more:

https://news.usni.org/2020/05/13/maritime-standoff-between-china-and-malaysia-winding-down

WE OWN THE NARRATIVE MAJORITY NOW. FAKE NEWS NO MORE POWER!

The Great Awakening ('Freedom of Thought’), was designed and created not only as a BACKCHANNEL to the public (away from the longstanding ‘mind’ control of the corrupt & heavily biased media) to endure future events through transparency and regeneration of individual thought (breaking the chains of ‘group-think’), but, more importantly, aid in the construction of a vehicle ( A 'SHIP' ) that provides the scattered (‘free thinkers’) with a ‘starter’ new social-networking platform which allows for freedom of thought, expression, and patriotism or national pride (the feeling of love, devotion and sense of attachment to a homeland and alliance with other citizens who share the same sentiment).-Q

Future Proves past. WWG1WGA. Promises Kept. The Great awakening Has Begun In Earnest!

>>9165316

well said