Leonardo DRS has received a $120 million deal from Naval Air Systems Command to continue developing and testing its Distributed Aperture Infrared Countermeasure (DAIRCM) advanced aircraft protection system, the company announced Monday.
The new deal follows an earlier Joint Urgent Operational Needs program that called for the AN/AAQ-45 DAIRCM system to be fielded on Air Force, Army and Navy aircraft platforms.
“Leonardo DRS is proud to provide these state-of-the-art systems to enhance aircraft protection throughout the fleet,” John Baylouny, Leonardo DRS’ chief operating officer, said in a statement. “This continued strong partnership with our customer has produced technologies that will offer advanced capabilities, including combat survivability for flight crews while supporting their ability to accomplish diverse mission sets for years to come.”
In March, Leonardo DRS announced the first DAIRCM production systems had been deployed on Air Force HH-60G helicopters in support of a Joint Urgent Operational Needs statement (Defense Daily, March 20).
“Under the newly awarded follow-on contract, Leonardo DRS will provide non-recurring engineering to design, develop, integrate and test engineering development models as well as production representative models of weapons replaceable assemblies for government testing,” the company wrote in a statement. “The system has an open and scalable architecture that allows it to be optimized for various type/model/series aircraft. The low size, weight and power design of the system supports a range of rotary and tilt-wing aircraft throughout the services, including application to the emerging future vertical lift programs”