USA — Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures System (ATIRCM)

NASHUA, New Hamp­shire — BAE Sys­tems’ Advanced Threat Infrared Coun­ter­mea­sures (ATIRCM) sys­tem is being field­ed on U.S. Army CH-47 Chi­nook heli­copters, and has already been cred­it­ed with defeat­ing infrared-guid­ed mis­siles since it went into ser­vice on the Chi­nook fleet six months ago.

U.S. sol­diers assigned to Task Force Wolver­ine unload their gear from an ATIR­CM-equipped CH-47 Chi­nook at Kiwi Base in Bamyan province, Afghanistan, March 17, 2010. The pri­ma­ry mis­sion of the task force will be to train and men­tor Afghan police. Source: U.S. Army pho­to by U.S. Army Spc. Charles J. Thompson	A U.S. Army CH-47 Chi­nook, equipped with the CMWS/ATIRCM suite, expends flares dur­ing recent flight tests. Source: U.S. Army photo.	A notion­al depic­tion of a U.S. Army CH-47 Chi­nook, equipped with the CMWS/ATIRCM suite, as it defeats an infrared-guid­ed mis­sile. Source: BAE Sys­tems graphic.

The ATIRCM sys­tem is a laser-based, directable coun­ter­mea­sures sys­tem that pro­tects heli­copters against attack by mis­siles. Since its field­ing, ATIRCM has exceed­ed all reli­a­bil­i­ty per­for­mance objec­tives and pro­vid­ed 100 per­cent oper­a­tional avail­abil­i­ty for the mission. 

“ATIRCM was put to the test in a com­plex sit­u­a­tion where Chi­nook air­craft were engaged by mul­ti­ple infrared, man-portable air-defense mis­siles,” said Jim Crouch, vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al man­ag­er of sur­viv­abil­i­ty and pro­tec­tion solu­tions for BAE Sys­tems. “Defeat­ing the threat is the ulti­mate mea­sure of its worth, and ATIRCM has pro­vid­ed the warfight­er con­fi­dence in the aircraft’s sur­viv­abil­i­ty while per­form­ing the mis­sion in hos­tile locations.” 

The ATIRCM pro­vides pas­sive warn­ing of a mis­sile approach using BAE Sys­tems’ AN/AAR-57 Com­mon Mis­sile Warn­ing Sys­tem (CMWS), which detects the mis­sile, rejects any false alarms, and cues the ATIRCM jam head to the missile’s loca­tion. When the jam head locates the mis­sile with its IR track­ing sys­tem, it emits a high-ener­gy beam to defeat the missile’s infrared seek­er. The field­ed inven­to­ry of the AN/ALQ-212(V) ATIRCM/CMWS suite has great­ly enhanced over­all air­craft sur­viv­abil­i­ty against cur­rent and evolv­ing threats. 

“The ATIRCM suite has proven to be the most reli­able laser-based, directable coun­ter­mea­sures sys­tem on com­bat heli­copters today,” added Crouch. “We are rapid­ly field­ing this sys­tem so that all deployed Chi­nooks are pro­tect­ed against IR-guid­ed mis­sile threats. This tech­nol­o­gy is sav­ing lives, and we’ll con­tin­ue to deliv­er the best-pos­si­ble pro­tec­tion for the warfighter.” 

BAE Sys­tems is the lead sys­tems inte­gra­tor for the ATIRCM/CMWS suite. The com­pa­ny has invest­ed in infra­struc­ture to sup­port the pro­gram and main­tains field per­son­nel who per­form real-time ATIRCM/CMWS suite assess­ment, main­te­nance, and upgrades. 

About BAE Sys­tems
BAE Sys­tems is a glob­al defense, secu­ri­ty and aero­space com­pa­ny with approx­i­mate­ly 107,000 employ­ees world­wide. The Com­pa­ny deliv­ers a full range of prod­ucts and ser­vices for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced elec­tron­ics, secu­ri­ty, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions and cus­tomer sup­port ser­vices. In 2009 BAE Sys­tems report­ed sales of £22.4 bil­lion (US$ 36.2 billion).

Text- / Bildquelle (source): BAE Sys­tems
Ansprech­part­ner / con­tact:
For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please con­tact: Matthew C. Bates, BAE Sys­tems Tel: +1 603 885 4558 Mobile: +1 603 318 6521 matthew.bates@baesystems.com