§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the improved United Kingdom air defence ground environment command and control system is due to come into operational service; what system is in operation in the meantime; and if he will make a statement as to how the ICCS will operate.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe integrated command and control system (ICCS) of the improved United Kingdom air defence ground environment (IUKADGE) is a computer system which will gather basic data relating to the air defence of the United Kingdom from a variety of sources (ground radars, early warning aircraft, fighters and ships, and NATO sources); process this information to maintain recognised air and sea pictures (RASP) and resource data catalogue (RDC) information files; provide assistance to operators to enable them to recognise hostile aircraft and to optimise the use of air defence assets to respond to such threats; and provide necessary supporting communications. Operating centres will be able to contribute to a common database and to assume other sites' tasks in the event of damage or loss. The quality, quantity and consistency of management information will be enhanced, so improving tactical decision making and resource management, as compared with the existing UKADGE system. In the latter, sites are linked only by a simple datalink and communications systems; command and control is exercised on a mixture of manual and semi-automatic systems; and the amount of shared data is limited.
The ICCS programme has suffered from substantial delays. We now expect it to be in full operational service by the mid-1990s.