ITT [ITT] plans to offer the Army a flexible, open architecture solution in response to a request for proposals for the potential more than $1.5 billion Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) program that is designed to save service helicopters from man-portable heat-seeking missiles.
ITT developed a system on its own internal investment, said Bob Lawler, Business Development Manager for Army Programs for Electronic Warfare Systems.
“Because we were able to make our own decisions on the development, we were able to define the architecture that we wanted to use and we believe that that is an advantage because we have what’s called modular open systems architecture (MOSA),” Lawler said in a recent interview.
This allows ITT to be very flexible–in selecting subcomponents, major subcontractors, applying lessons learned and in using new and emerging technology (Defense Daily, Jan. 8).
“We believe our advantage is in our architecture and since we were able to develop a new program from the ground up, that architecture is very integral to what we’re doing and that has allowed us to move forward, we believe, very quickly,” he said.
Proposals are due to the Army by close of business April 15, and a minimum of two contracts are likely to be awarded at the end of this Fiscal Year. The CIRCM technology demonstration phase is fully funded under the fiscal year ’11 and ’12 budgets. The FY’11 budget is currently in limbo, even as the FY’12 budget is proceeding through the normal process.
ITT faces likely competition from companies such as Raytheon [RTN], Northrop Grumman [NOC], Lockheed Martin [LMT], Finmeccanica‘s DRS Technologies and BAE Systems.
While some might say ITT has only been in the business five years, Lawler said that’s okay because they chose an architecture that allows them to use emerging technologies that were already mature. That comes from the open and scalable architecture that allows the company to move forward quickly and efficiently.
ITT does build the pointer tracker for the system, but it was developed with an open architecture so subcomponents can be substituted quite easily, he said.
“A very big plus, we believe, in our favor is that because of this architecture we are able to take advantage of emerging technologies and react to the changing threat more rapidly and more efficiently,” he said.
During development, issues did come up, for example, improving an infrared fiber to move laser energy around the open system. The use of the fiber is very important, he said, to ensure the architecture is kept intact. ITT chose the fiber to do that, and found some improvements were needed for the IR fiber to ensure it could do what was wanted. There was nothing commercially available that had the throughput to move that amount of laser energy around the system. The company worked with subcontractors and suppliers to produce the fiber so it could do that.
It was an iterative, developmental process that continued to improve the fiber to the point that “we now have a fiber optic line solution that meets our requirements,” he said.
Lawler said, “We did trade studies and looked at the requirement and saw that there was available technology that could be used to address IRCM issues, which encouraged the company to enter the program area.
Using an open architecture that allows you to use technology as it changes enables developing a system that meets the requirement, yet that system “is much more reliable, is lighter in weight and costs less,” Lawler said.
Right now, the main focus is on writing and submitting the CIRCM proposal.”Our intent is to be 100 percent compliant with all the CIRCM requirements and propose to the Army a system that will be successful in the technology demonstration phase,” he said. “We’re focused on the Army being successful.”
At the same time the company is pursuing its own internal testing and validation of the system. It has continued to do this on its own with internal funds, which also has helped to keep the core team together over five years.