By Marina Malenic
The Army’s Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) competition is attracting new companies to the helicopter protection business in what could become a multi-billion-dollar sale.
Raytheon [RTN] executives at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting and exposition in Washington said they plan to pursue a prime contractor role in response to the Army’s CIRCM request for proposal, whose release is expected before the week is out.
The Army issued a draft RFP in May for the new competition. That document allows for different configurations, such as single or multiple pointer-trackers. The Army also requires that the system weigh no more than 85 pounds CIRCM will protect combat helicopters and other aircraft by jamming the infrared guidance systems of heat-seeking missiles and diverting the missiles away from the aircraft.
BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman [NOC] have been building directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) systems for all the armed services for about the last 10 years. Northrop Grumman makes the large aircraft system (LAIRCM) for the Air Force and Navy, and BAE has been the incumbent on the advanced threat system (ATIRCM) for Boeing [BA] CH-47 Chinooks. CIRCM will replace the Army’s previous plan to acquire ATIRCM for its entire fleet. ATIRCM failed during aerial cable range tests in 2004, according to Army documents, and service officials have said they want to field a cheaper, lighter system for their remaining helicopters.
Raytheon’s CIRCM solution, known as Scorpion, features the company’s directed infrared countermeasures turret and a rugged quantum cascade laser. Company engineers have adapted the seeker from its AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile into a potentially low-cost and lightweight option for the Army.
“Scorpion leverages the military’s multibillion dollar investment in the production of air-to-air missile seekers and the commercial world’s development of quantum cascade lasers,” Mike Booen, Raytheon’s vice president of advanced security and directed energy systems, told Defense Daily yesterday.
Scorpion has a high reliability rate when compared to similar systems, according to Booen. As a result, the system is cheaper to maintain and operate than legacy options, he said.
“The weapon’s open system architecture makes it compatible with the majority of missile warning systems on combat aircraft platforms in operation today,” he added.
Meanwhile, ITT [ITT] has teamed with Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Acculite division to offer the Army a CIRCM system. ITT’s approach relies on integrating components recently developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. The system relies on fiber-optic cable to connect a pointer-tracker control unit to multiple pointer-trackers. Each of those aim laser energy at heat-seeking enemy missiles.
Incumbents Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems are also planning to compete for the work. BAE has said it would pitch an advanced system called Boldstroke, while Northrop Grumman has teamed with Selex Galileo to integrate the Eclipse micro-pointer/tracker with the Viper multifunction laser.