USAF orders more LAIRCM systems
Crucial to keeping aircrews safe, LAIRCM automatically detects emerging missile threats and uses a high-intensity, laser-based countermeasure system to track and defeat missiles. (Photo: Northrop Grumman)
Northrop Grumman has received an order for further installations of its Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure (LAIRCM) systems on US and international fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
The contract is valued at $146 million and was placed by the USAF.
The award is part of an existing indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for LAIRCM upgrades, modifications and installations on a wide range of aircraft, including the C-17, C-5, C-130J, P-8, CH-53K, KC-46 and other platforms operated by international customers.
Northrop Grumman’s family of countermeasure systems are installed on more than 1,500 aircraft of 85 different types.
The LAIRCM system for the USAF combines an advanced IR missile warning system and directed laser countermeasures.
The systems provide spherical protection by detecting, tracking and jamming incoming infrared threats.
It defeats threats by directing a high-intensity laser beam into the eye of the fast-moving missile’s infrared seeker.
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