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The U.S. Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract worth nearly $1 billion to equip its helicopters with infrared jammers designed to blind incoming heat-seeking missiles.
Northrop will build common infrared countermeasures (CIRCM) for Army combat helicopters through April 2026 under the $959 million contract awarded April 30. Northrop was the sole company to bid for the contract, according to a Defense Department announcement.
Northrop Grumman Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Conceptual Artist Rendering
The Army plans to buy more than 1,000 CIRCM suites for the AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook. Designed with an open-architecture backbone that allows both integration onto various aircraft and future software and hardware upgrades, CIRCM also likely will protect the Future Attack Recon Aircraft (FARA) and Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) from enemy anti-aircraft weapons.
CIRCM integrates defensive IR countermeasures capabilities into existing, current-generation aircraft to engage and defeat man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and vehicle-launched missiles. The CIRCM system — which consists of a pointer-tracker unit, an infrared laser and processor unit — is part of a suite of IR countermeasures that also includes a missile warning system (MWS) and a countermeasure dispenser for flares and chaff.
The system is designed to “interface with both the Army’s Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) and future missile warning systems (MWS) to defeat current and emerging missile threats that use multispectral technology for rotary-wing, tiltrotor and small fixed-wing aircraft,” according to the Army’s fiscal 2021 budget document. “CIRCM jams the missile by using modulated laser energy in the missile seeker band, thus degrading the tracking capability of the missile and causing it to miss the aircraft.”
verticalmag.com
Northrop will build common infrared countermeasures (CIRCM) for Army combat helicopters through April 2026 under the $959 million contract awarded April 30. Northrop was the sole company to bid for the contract, according to a Defense Department announcement.
Northrop Grumman Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Conceptual Artist Rendering
The Army plans to buy more than 1,000 CIRCM suites for the AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook. Designed with an open-architecture backbone that allows both integration onto various aircraft and future software and hardware upgrades, CIRCM also likely will protect the Future Attack Recon Aircraft (FARA) and Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) from enemy anti-aircraft weapons.
CIRCM integrates defensive IR countermeasures capabilities into existing, current-generation aircraft to engage and defeat man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and vehicle-launched missiles. The CIRCM system — which consists of a pointer-tracker unit, an infrared laser and processor unit — is part of a suite of IR countermeasures that also includes a missile warning system (MWS) and a countermeasure dispenser for flares and chaff.
The system is designed to “interface with both the Army’s Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) and future missile warning systems (MWS) to defeat current and emerging missile threats that use multispectral technology for rotary-wing, tiltrotor and small fixed-wing aircraft,” according to the Army’s fiscal 2021 budget document. “CIRCM jams the missile by using modulated laser energy in the missile seeker band, thus degrading the tracking capability of the missile and causing it to miss the aircraft.”
U.S. Army buys $1 billion in infrared helicopter missile shields
The U.S. Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a nearly $1 billion contract for electronic jammers designed to protect helicopters from incoming enemy missiles.
verticalmag.com
