U.S. ARMY IRCM REQUIREMENT PROGRESSES TO RFQ
By Julian Nettlefold
BATTLESPACE spoke to Bob Lawler, Business Development Manager, IRCM, ITT Electronic Systems
08 Jan 10. The last time we covered the multi-billion upcoming IRCM (Infrared Countermeasure) requirement for the U.S. Army’s helicopter fleet was during last year’s Paris Air Show. BATTLESAPCE met up with Bob Lawler, ITT Business Development Manager, to discuss the progress of the Requirement. The U.S. Army Requirement is being bid by amongst others, BAE Systems, ITT Electronic Systems, and Northrop Grumman (teamed with Selex). The Army saw the earlier DIRCM systems, developed by Ferranti in Scotland and supplied by the likes of Northrop Grumman over fifteen years ago, as being heavy and lacking reliability.
“IRCM technology is a new area for ITT?”
“Yes, four years ago, following an internal survey of future business opportunities, we saw IRCHM technologies as a major area to earn new revenues. To that end we put a lot of internal funding into the design of the system and following developments testing in 2009, ITT built a production demonstrator system which is a laser-based anti-missile system. We then built four systems under LRIP. It was after that that the U.S. Army issued its Requirement. We worked with Lockheed Martin’s Aculite segment who supplies the laser for the pointer tracker.”
What was the reason for the requirement?”
“The 13 year old ATIRCM Program run by BAE Systems has run into problems and the U.S. Army decided to seek requests for new systems. They kept the Common Missile Warning Systems (CMWS) element. BAE subsequently supplied some systems under a UOR for CH-47 helicopters for Afghanistan. The new system is required to be based on an Open Architecture.”
“How many systems are involved?”
“Although it is not a Joint Requirement, we expect the USAF and the US Navy to become involved in the Requirement as it matures. The U.S. Army has 3000 aircraft, the U.S. Navy 1000 and the USAF many hundred, so it is a multi-billion
dollar Requirement.”
“What is the next stage?”
“A number of suppliers, including ITT, chose to supply systems for evaluation and this process finished this month. The test results will be shown to the individual companies and a common design set in stone by the DoD. There will be no down-select at this stage and an RFP is expected by the end of February 2010. Depending on the technology risk, there may be a down-select to two suppliers mid-year or a down-select to one, with a winner-takes-all solution for one supplier announced in mid-September. If a Company did not participate in the assessment process, it will still be able to bid the Requirement.”
“Is ITT looking at ground-based laser applications as we reported last week with regard to the Boeing system?”
“Yes, that would be the next stage in the process, but we have not reached the point of developing a product. Ant-armor missiles are becoming more sophisticated by the day and require the best technology to defeat them.”
“We announced last week the realignment of ITT’s defense segment, how has this affected the Electronics Systems segment?”
(See: BATTLESPACE ALERT Vol.12 ISSUE 02, 06 January 2009, ITT ANNOUNCES REALINGNMENT OF DEFENSE BUSINESS)
“As you know ITT has consolidated its Defense business from seven to three business areas to create better synergy of product and technology. This consolidation will allow the interaction of technology to cross fertilise between systems and break down any exiting segment barriers. Chris Bernhardt is still our boss. Its good news all round.”