By B.C. Kessner
The Air Force has awarded Raytheon [RTN] a $5 million Defense Acquisition Challenge (DAC) contract to integrate within nine months the company’s Quiet Eyes Laser Turret Assembly (QELTA) with a rugged quantum cascade laser (QCL) for large fixed-wing aircraft.
“Raytheon was selected for this award because of our history of providing the military with products on schedule and below cost,” Mike Booen, Raytheon’s vice president of Advanced Security and Directed Energy Systems, said in a statement. “Quiet Eyes is a mature system that is ready for integration aboard a wide range of fixed-wing aircraft.”
Through the DAC program, the Pentagon awards development contracts to companies that offer technologies with cost-saving potential.
Quiet Eyes is a key component of Raytheon’s Directed Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) aircraft protection system.
A DIRCM system consists of a missile warning system, which identifies an infrared threat inbound to the platform, a fine pointer-tracker–the Quiet Eyes turret–that slews in a split second to where the warning system finds the IR missile threat, acquires the threat, tracks it, and through a fiber connected to a telescope inside the turret dome, transfers laser energy to defeat the missile.
QELTA is also a cornerstone of Raytheon’s Scorpion, one of several solutions being offered by firms bidding for the Army’s Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) program for rotary-wing aircraft. The CIRCM request for proposals (RFP) is expected very soon, followed by a technology demonstration (TD) phase award in June.
As part of the DAC QELTA contract, Raytheon will demonstrate successful integration of its lightweight, low-cost Quiet Eyes turret with a rugged QCL for large fixed-wing aircraft such as the C-17 and C-130.
Previously, the Air Force helped Raytheon develop the system in the Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure (LAIRCM) Special Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, under the Cost-Effective Light Aircraft Missile Protection (CELAMP) program where Raytheon was a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman [NOC]. Northrop Grumman has been providing the LAIRCM system for the Air Force and Navy.
Raytheon last week told sister publication Defense Daily that this effort was unrelated to the CELAMP program and that Raytheon is priming this effort.
“There is interest across service lines and at the Office of the Secretary of Defense,” Booen e-mailed in response to questions. “Our system turret is about a softball size compared to the medicine ball size used by others, and our laser takes advantage of the latest laser technology, producing a light weight, highly reliable, and affordable DIRCM system.”
The Daylight Defense wholly owned subsidiary of Daylight Solutions is the subcontractor providing the QCL system for the QELTA contract.
Quiet Eyes is designed with modular open systems architecture, making it compatible with both ultraviolet and infrared missile warning systems, as well as laser, and including pulsed or continuous wave systems.
During multiple test range demonstrations in 2008, the turrets successfully shot down 100 percent of threat missiles they went up against, the company added.
Quiet Eyes uses technology from an in-production air-to-air missile, a legacy the company said provides real data confirming its reliability and affords a very high percentage of commonality.
The turret can also be flexibly placed, mounted so as little as 2.5 inches would be exposed outside the airframe, producing minimal drag. A 15-pound processor also is associated with the turret. It doesn’t have to be located with the turret, but can go elsewhere in the airframe.