Northrop Grumman’s CIRCM system will help protect US Army aircraft from current and emerging infrared threats. Credit: Northrop Grumman Corporation.

Northrop Grumman has announced successful free flight missile testing of its Common Infrared Countermeasure (CIRCM) system for the US Army.

The CIRCM system was tested at White Sands Missile Range and is designed to protect specific types of US Army aircraft against infrared-guided missile threats. It is developed on an open architecture to enable its integration with existing systems.

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CIRCM is equipped with advanced Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) technology, a compact pointer/tracker and a lightweight COTS processor to achieve specific requirements.

It is specifically designed to protect rotary-wing, tilt-rotor and small fixed-wing aircraft.

Northrop Grumman land and avionics C4ISR vice-president Bob Gough said: “CIRCM has undergone thousands of hours of testing to verify its performance in a range of realistic combat scenarios.

“During the recent testing at White Sands Missile Range, our system once again demonstrated superior capability in countering infrared threats. We look forward to providing the US Army with this unparalleled protection.”

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The test involved mounting the CIRCM system to an aircraft and assessing its effectiveness against single and multiple shot scenarios.

The successful testing serves as an important step to advance with the plans to begin full-rate production of the countermeasure system. It is currently in low-rate initial production.

In August last year, Northrop Grumman began initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) of CIRCM system for the US Army’s helicopter fleet.

Headquartered in the US state of Virginia, Northrop Grumman is a military electronics and systems manufacturer.

With nearly 85,000 people employees, the company also caters to space, aeronautics and cyberspace markets.

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