Northrop Grumman CIRCM completes US Army testing

Northrop Grumman has announced that its Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) system has successfully completed the entire government-designed test plan, following a final round of US Army tests on a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter.

The six week flight test programme, which was conducted at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville by the Redstone Test Center, saw CIRCM’s effectiveness under intense aircraft environments - including turns, banks, gunfire, flares, clutter, multiple shots, rotor blades and engine exhaust – demonstrated. Performance capabilities against captive missile seekers were also demonstrated. 

Jeffrey Q. Palombo, vice president and general manager, Northrop Grumman, land and self-protection systems division, said: 'With each opportunity to prove its effectiveness, our CIRCM system has performed well. This flight test performance correlated extremely well with the results of our lab testing demonstration to show the maturity of our algorithms and software, which is something that many new programmes can struggle with. 

‘Drawing upon more than 1 million hours of laser-based directional infrared countermeasure system operation in theatre, plus 1,000 hours of instrumented CIRCM tests, allowed us to successfully handle the complex scenarios encountered during the flight testing phase of this programme.’  

The CIRCM system is a lightweight laser-based countermeasure system. With an open architecture design, it can be integrated with legacy and emerging missile warning systems for rotary wing, tilt-rotor and small fixed-wing aircraft. 

Palombo added: ‘With a rich legacy of producing reliable infrared countermeasures systems, Northrop Grumman has proven it can take systems like this through Milestone C and into full-rate production. Our open architecture CIRCM system brings best-of-breed technology to the warfighter to handle current and future threats.’