Indirect Fire Protection Capability Battalion
Every other battalion in a Multi_Domain_Task_Force exists to reach out. The IFPC battalion exists to keep the task force alive long enough to do it. It is the air and missile defense element that covers the launchers, the sensors, and the command post against cruise missiles, drones, and rockets, and it is the piece of the MDTF that is furthest behind schedule.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Air and missile defense battalion, one per Multi_Domain_Task_Force |
| Commanded by | Lieutenant colonel |
| Primary system | IFPC_Increment_2, Enduring Shield |
| Threats countered | Cruise missiles, uncrewed aircraft systems, rocket, artillery and mortar (RAM) |
| Parent | Multi_Domain_Task_Force |
| Branch | Air_Defense_Artillery |
What It Is For
IFPC_Increment_2 is a mobile, ground-based system designed to protect critical fixed and semi-fixed assets, filling the gap between short-range air defense and the Patriot and THAAD systems. Inside an MDTF that means covering the things the task force cannot afford to lose: Typhon and Dark_Eagle launchers, the Multi_Domain_Effects_Battalion’s sensing nodes, and the task force command post.
The design problem is asymmetric. An MDTF disperses its launchers to survive, which multiplies the number of sites needing coverage while the battalion’s launcher count stays fixed. That tension, between dispersal for survivability and concentration for defensibility, is the same one described in Dispersal_Sustainment_Paradox.
The system is open-architecture and interceptor-agnostic by design. It can employ AIM-9X Sidewinder and the AGM-114L Longbow variant of Hellfire, and the Army has tested the Israeli Tamir round used by Iron Dome. In October 2025 the Army awarded Lockheed Martin an other transaction agreement to prototype a second interceptor aimed at low-flying supersonic cruise missiles, described as an AIM-120D-like capability sized to fit eighteen rounds in an Increment 2 launcher. Development would run through 2029 or 2030 before low-rate production.
Fielding Plan
CRS lists nine planned IFPC_Increment_2 battalions. Three are explicitly MDTF battalions and two more sit at MDTF stations:
| Battalion | Location | Fielding | Association |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-51 ADA | Joint_Base_Lewis-McChord, WA | FY2026 | 1st_MDTF |
| 1-57 ADA | Fort_Drum, NY | FY2028 | 2nd_MDTF |
| 3rd IFPC BN | Joint_Base_Lewis-McChord, WA | FY2029 | 3rd_MDTF |
| 5-5 ADA | Fort_Carson, CO | FY2029 | Fort_Carson is the 4th_MDTF planned station |
| 2-44 ADA | Fort_Bragg, NC | FY2030 | 5th_MDTF |
| 6th IFPC BN | Joint_Base_Lewis-McChord, WA | FY2030 | I_Corps |
| 7th IFPC BN | Fort_Campbell, KY | FY2031 | V Corps |
| 8th IFPC BN | To be determined | FY2031 | Unassigned |
| 9th IFPC BN | Fort Hood, TX | FY2033 | III_Corps |
Separately, the Army plans to begin shipping IFPC_Increment_2 to Guam in the first quarter of FY2027 and to have all twenty launchers on island by the third quarter of FY2027 to support initial operational capability. The Army has stated the Guam deployment is intended strictly to protect Army facilities and Army sites, not other services’ installations.
Program Status
Dynetics, a Leidos subsidiary, received the original prototype agreement in September 2021 and was awarded a 1.6 billion in discretionary funding for Increment 2, about double the $831 million FY2026 request.
The two directed-energy variants have effectively been cancelled as fielded capabilities. The High_Energy_Laser prototype is to be divested as a fielding candidate and used instead to inform the Joint Laser Warfighting System. The Epirus High_Power_Microwave variant, aimed at small drone swarms, delivered six prototypes with no further procurement planned.
Why It Matters
The battalions arrive years after the missiles they protect. 3rd_MDTF plans full operational capability in FY2026 and its IFPC battalion fields in FY2029. The 5th_MDTF’s targets FY2028 and FY2030. For several years the Army’s most valuable and most targetable ground formations will operate with borrowed or absent organic air defense.
Counter-drone volume is the sizing problem nobody has solved. The interceptor economics of shooting cheap one-way attack drones with AIM-9X-class rounds are bad, and the two variants meant to fix that, laser and microwave, are being divested. See Counter_UAS and Counter_UAS_Doctrine.
Guam is the pacing deployment. The FY2027 Guam schedule, not the MDTF battalion schedule, is what drove the program’s 2023 slip. Guam absorbs early production, which pushes MDTF fielding right.
See Also
- Multi_Domain_Task_Force | Multi_Domain_Effects_Battalion | Long_Range_Fires_Battalion | Brigade_Support_Battalion
- 1st_MDTF | 2nd_MDTF | 3rd_MDTF | 4th_MDTF | 5th_MDTF
- IFPC_Increment_2 | Patriot | THAAD | SHORAD | Air_and_Missile_Defense_Modernization | SMDC
- Counter_UAS | Counter_UAS_Doctrine | Dispersal_Sustainment_Paradox | Anti_Access_Area_Denial