ITT Corp. [ITT] is poised for an expected spring competition for the Common InfraRed CounterMeasures (CIRCM) program to improve the safety and survivability of Army aviation, officials said.
Aircraft survivability equipment is a key focus, as is accelerating development where possible, said Lt. Gen. James Thurman, deputy Chief of Staff G-3/5/7 at the Association of the United States Army Aviation Symposium and Exhibition Jan. 6 in Arlington, Va.
CIRCM, pronounced “Kirkum” to differentiate it from an earlier program, is an Army program to develop and procure a directed infrared countermeasure system.
The Army is expecting to release a solicitation this spring, and potentially award a contract by the end of the fiscal year.
“ITT has spent a lot of individual and internal development funds to develop an IRCM system that will compete for this Army requirement,” Bob Lawler, business development manager, Electronic Warfare Systems at ITT, told sister publication Defense Daily in an interview at the symposium.
“Directed IRCM systems provide a countermeasure against the smaller heat seeking anti-aircraft missiles that are very widely deployed throughout the world,” he said.
MANPAD systems are an example of such threats and are widely available around the world, including to groups unaffiliated with state sponsorship. The systems are easily transportable, easy to operate and are found just about everywhere and predominantly now in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It is these threats ITT wants to stop.
“The missiles that are IR guided now are more sophisticated than the first generations that occurred during the Vietnam War,” Lawler said.
Therefore the countermeasure has to keep up, becoming a cyclical effort as technology moves forward in the threat and in the defense against it.
“We saw an opportunity to bring new technology to the defense of aircraft,” he said. “We could now bring technology that is lighter, is less expensive, [and] then the big thing is, it’s more reliable. That’s the number one thing that we focused on at ITT–the reliability of the system.”
The time to react to a threat has become shorter, for that reason, there is a dependence on newer and more dependable technology to ensure survivability, he said. An important factor for the countermeasure is how fast can you provide it, as MANPADS are short-range missiles. The ability to react very quickly and accurately is very important. New technology allows it to be done.
“That’s the bottom line. Protecting aircraft protects the people inside it, which allows the military force to accomplish their mission,” he said.
The customer does have specific weight goals, which in turn drives the technology because weight is so important to helicopters.
“Besides reliability, we wanted to come in at a lower weight as well, and for business reasons we wanted to come in lower in cost as well,” Lawler said.
Reduced cost comes from using synergies with other technologies. “If you have a processor or computer that works in one area but you can use it to work in another area, then you don’t have to build a new processor, you can reuse parts of systems, and your developmental costs go down,” he said.
Additionally, since technology moves forward so quickly that if the system has an open architecture, “you can take out the old and put in the new without making major changes,” which again, reduces the cost.
“Open architecture is not only a hallmark as to what ITT does, it has become a key requirement to the customer,” Lawler said. “The ability to make rapid changes with minimum impact is very valuable, because software changes cost a lot of money. Software is a bigger bill than hardware. So if you can make hardware changes with minimum impact to software under an open architecture, then you have actually reduced costs. “
Open architecture also “may” allow a reduction in the follow on testing, because “if you have not impacted other systems, you don’t have to retest other systems,” he said.
Reducing the acquisition time to get a product to the warfighter faster is the ultimate goal.
Because ITT’s system is open architecture it can use other company products, the whole thing doesn’t have to be ITT, he said. For example, if the customer wants to use the ITT tracking system and someone else’s laser, “our open architecture allows that,” he said.
For the CIRCM competition, ITT “would provide a countermeasure system that includes a pointer tracker, which tracks the threat, and points the laser beam back at the threat, and we will offer them a laser to provide the countermeasures energy to do that,” he said.
ITT partners with Lockheed Martin [LMT] and uses its laser system.
ITT tested a prototype system on an Army UH-60 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, N.J., last year. The system demonstrated the ability to track and put energy on the target and validated the open architecture concept.
To determine where the pointer tracker should be installed for the best vision for a countermeasure each aircraft is something ITT is analyzing. “The same countermeasure equipment goes on each aircraft, but where it goes on the aircraft will probably be different for each aircraft,” he said. Terrain, too, must be taken into account. In Afghanistan, for example, someone could be on a mountain shooting down at the aircraft.
“Our goal is to be as light as possible, but weight is always an issue. Newer technology is always an issue,” he said.
In a theater like Afghanistan where there is not a lot of infrastructure, a lot of missions depend on moving personnel, equipment and supplies, helicopters for troops and civilian populations.
“Helicopters have become very much a lifeline in that type of theater,” Lawler said. “The lifeline then becomes a target to your enemy. The goal of protecting in-theater aircraft, such as helicopters, is very high on the customer’s list.”
The CIRCM competition is likely to attract the major companies normally associated with advanced electronic warfare such as BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Raytheon [RTN].