A missile is detected over the Pacific Ocean. A global network of integrated sensors in space, on land, and under the sea track the event. The C2 Battle Management & Command System identifies the missile, tracks its trajectory towards North America, and launches the counter measures to intercept the threat.
This is the vision of Golden Dome for America. The future of America’s missile defense system. The mission of MDA SHIELD. A vision, future, and mission for which Broadcom is foundational as a strategic partner in America’s missile defense enterprise.
Broadcom Reaffirms Strategic Partnership with MDA SHIELD IDIQ Award
Broadcom’s VMware software portfolio has long been integral to the United States missile defense enterprise. That relationship has advanced with the selection of the company as a recipient of an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) award from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program.
MDA SHIELD is aimed at accelerating the nation’s development, testing, and fielding of next- generation advanced missile defense systems to comprehensively detect and eliminate land, sea, air, and space missile threats from any adversary.
The SHIELD multi-domain defense system encompasses nineteen work areas. The work areas covered by the contracts include research and development (R&D), prototyping, weapons development, modernization, and cybersecurity. Broadcom’s extraordinary breadth of advanced technologies may wind up underpinning them all.
The MDA-IDIQ has a ceiling of $151 billion over 10 years and encompasses, as of this writing, 2,440 contract awards. It is a key contracting vehicle in support of the Golden Dome for America, a vision focused on providing comprehensive protection against any threat from any domain, including cyber and hybrid physical and cyber-attacks.
A Command-and-Control System of Systems
In its complexity, aims, and scale, the Director of Golden Dome, General Michael A. Guetlein likens the MDA SHIELD program to the Manhattan Project in World War II. One of his first priorities is developing the Command and Control (C2) needed to manage a “system of several thousand systems” that will comprise the nation’s next generation missile defense.
The C2 Battle Management and Communication (C2BMC) system incorporates the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) and Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS). Together, these systems are responsible for coordinating the global network of sensors that provide the eyes and ears of our missile defense and the multiple interceptor systems that give the system its lethal teeth.
Broadcom, the Backbone of America’s Missile Defense
The multiple meshed systems — sensor, interceptor, operational command — involved in C2BMC need to connect seamlessly and work together. Broadcom’s VMware portfolio is central to this coordination and control. The VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform with its unmatched integration of virtualized compute, storage, and networking operations provides a proven model for the modern software-defined C2 system needed to realize the Golden Dome vision.
As a participant in MDA SHIELD and a strategic partner across the missile defense enterprise, Broadcom is uniquely positioned to help create the C2 global management system of systems.
Scalability
The challenges ahead begin with C2’s need for scalability. The SHIELD C2 system needs to manage a network of sensors and interceptor systems that will grow exponentially from current deployments. The C2 system will need to scale both horizontally and vertically. One of the core characteristics of the VMware platform is its essentially infinite capacity to scale.
“Back-Office” C2 Operations
Essential elements of SHIELD which need to be incorporated include:
- Data fusion technologies to integrate data from sensors and edge technologies across space, air, land, and sea.
- Model-driven automation to implement the functional applications for identifying, targeting, and eliminating missiles from any source.
- Multi-domain protection from space-based threats to cyberattacks.
- Zero Trust Segmentation (ZTS) to ensure that any enemy cannot move laterally if they were to somehow breach any network of MDA SHIELD.
Broadcom’s VMware VCF private cloud platform provides all these essential technologies to the SHIELD C2 system. Already today VCF is the C2 software backbone of America’s most advanced missile defense systems, including the US Navy’s Aegis Combat System, the world’s most advanced, automated, sea-based system. VCF’s private cloud platform provides the complex “back office” functionality that enables the success and agility of the Aegis Combat System.
Standardization and Simplification
One of the largest challenges facing the SHIELD team is the need to link the capabilities of more than 2,400 vendors involved in this project and all the disparate programs together to meet the project’s demands in a platform that is trusted, proven, open, scalable, and supports them all. The VCF platform, which the SHIELD team has seen in action across the US military for years, can provide that simplification and standardization necessary to achieve the SHIELD mission goals and objectives.
One last point on SHIELD, which is one of the largest-budget defense programs ever conceived. Its technical span and complexity will require large teams of extraordinarily talented technologists, engineers, and, especially, skilled software developers. VCF offers the additional benefit of ensuring an industry-standard ecosystem for the talent acquisition and retention for the resources needed to support this very complex system in the timeframes established for its development.
The VMware VCF platform is a proven success for critical missions. In the age of Golden Dome and SHIELD, Broadcom remains the foundational defense the nation can depend on.