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The Air Force last week awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] a $463 million requirements contract for sustainment of the AN/AAQ-24(V) Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) system, the service said in a statement.
The Air Force said work includes depot-level repair of 20 components of the AN/AAQ-24(V) system. Air Force spokesman Ted Theopolos said in an email yesterday the 20 components are eight laser transmitter assemblies, four missile warning sensors, four processors, one controller interface unit, one modulator, one transmitter and one power supply.
Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Leah Smith said Wednesday in an email the contract awarded was sole source. Work is to be completed by July 26, 2017. Smith also said depot-level maintenance includes the maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft assemblies, subassemblies and components.
The Air Force in March awarded Northrop Grumman a $334 million, firm-fixed-price contract to provide the service with LAIRCM systems and support.
The LAIRCM system functions by automatically detecting a missile launch, determining if it is a threat and activating a high-intensity, laser-based countermeasure system to track and defeat the missile. The LAIRCM program is a solution to the problem of protecting Air Force transport aircraft from missiles, whether they be air-to-air, surface-to-air missiles or shoulder-fired, infrared (IR), man-portable air defense missiles (MANPADS).
The Defense Department initially focused on acquiring IR countermeasure systems to protect large aircraft, such as the C-130 and the C-17. These kinds of large planes have traditionally defended themselves from heat-seeking missiles by dropping flares, but as IR missiles became more advanced, they also became more resistant to this kind of countermeasure (Defense Daily, March 20).
LAIRCM is similar to the Army’s Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) program. The Army restarted in May the CIRCM program under a $38 million contract with Northrop Grumman and a $31.4 million deal with BAE Systems. CIRCM is the Army’s program to help protect rotocraft and small fixed wing aircraft from missiles. CIRCM will provide the sole acquisition of future laser-based countermeasure systems for all rotary-wing, tilt-rotor and small fixed wing aircraft across the Defense Department (Defense Daily, June 20).
C-130s are developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT] while C-17s are developed by Boeing [BA].