Developed by Northrop Grumman, the Integrated Meteorological System (AN/TMQ-40 IMETS) is the meteorological component of the Intelligence and Electronic Warfare (IEW) an element of the Army Battle Command System (ABCS). IMETS provides Army commanders at all echelons with an automated weather system to receive, process, and disseminate weather observations, forecasts, and weather and environmental effects decision aids to all Battlefield Operating Systems (BOS). IMETS is a mobile, tactical, automated weather data receiving, processing and dissemination system. The IMETS is an Army-furnished and maintained system operated by US Air Force battlefield weather team personnel. It uses US Air Force and Army developed software to provide a total weather system to support the Army.
Contents
IMETS is a heavy Humvee mounted tactical system which provides automation and communications support to staff weather teams assigned to echelons from brigade through Echelons Above Corps (EAC). IMETS receives weather information from polar-orbiting civilian and defense meteorological satellites, Air Force Global Weather Center, artillery meteorological teams, remote sensors and civilian forecast centers. IMETS processes and collates forecasts, observations, and climatological data to produce timely and accurate weather products tailored to the specific Warfighter’s needs.
IMETS provides automation and communications support to USAF Weather Teams assigned to Army G2/G3 sections at echelons Brigade through EAC. IMETS receives, processes, and collates forecasts, observations, and climatological data to produce weather forecasts and timely and accurate products to meet Commanders' requirements. IMETS produces displays and disseminates, over Army ABCS, weather forecasts and tactical decision aids that compare the impact of current, projected, or hypothesized weather conditions on friendly and enemy capabilities.
Variations
The IMETS currently fielded is in two configurations. They are the vehicle-mounted configuration (VMC), IMETS-Heavy, and the laptop version, the IMETS-Light. The IMETS-Light is the most common version; US Army uses IMETS-Light for aviation brigades and brigade combat teams. Both configurations have identical intelligence processing capabilities. The IMETS-Light has recently passed the Milestone C review and its production and fielding have official authorization. Both configurations of IMETS operate with ABCS Version 6.X-complaint software.
Training
IMETS training is accomplished at Staff Weather Officer (SWO) Course at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. SWO training is four weeks long, IMETS portion being half of that. This is somewhat ironic, as IMETS has not been used much since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began.
Units with IMETS
The following units use IMETS: