In the late 1950s, the first IR-guided missiles appear, proliferating on battlefield and in hands of terrorists. These missiles are guided passively by locking onto target heat signatures.
Since then, BAE Systems has thwarted the threats posed by IR missiles. These milestones help underscore our experience with IRCM technology.
Milestones
1960s – The AN/ALQ-132 is first installed on Army Mohawk surveillance aircraft flying in Vietnam. It was a large cumbersome system, fuel-fired, using flashlamp technology. The Vietnam experience revealed the need for smaller IR countermeasure systems to protect helicopters and small fixed-wing surveillance aircraft.
Late 1960s – BAE Systems’ engineers analyze missile components and discover electronic guidance vulnerable to modulated energy; subsequently, we evolved jamming techniques as an improvement over the previous breaklock technique.
Around 1970 – The BAE Systems Jam Lab is established, initially as a U.S. Army contract for an IR simulator. It has become a repository for IR missile hardware and simulations for missile analysis and exploitation.
1971 – "Hot Brick" was built to prove the concept of jamming. It was tested at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico against Redeye missiles. Its success was spectacular: 17 missiles fired; 17 misses. When the jammer was turned off, the 18th missile scored a direct hit. This proved BAE Systems’ innovative approach that nonlinear effects introduced into the missile’s electronics could degrade performance with less effort than breaklock techniques.
1970s – A major challenge was finding a suitable heat source for airborne countermeasures. An improved energy source was needed both because of the weight of fuel-fired system and the danger of operating an airborne system using a flammable material. Engineers experimented with flash lamps, jet fuel, and a propane-heated ceramic element (CAIR, Hot Brick, Electric Brick, Have Charcoal). These experiments led to BAE Systems engineers devising an innovative IR source technology using a heated ceramic element. The technology of generating modulated IR energy from a heated ceramic element became the Army’s standard IRCM technique; the company produced a number of ALQ-147 derivations during the '70s for fixed-wing aircraft. A companion program, Electric Brick, was developed to protect commercial aircraft.
1975 – The need to protect helicopters and small fixed-wing aircraft meant developing a system that was small, light and omnidirectional. A more efficient heat source, powered by electricity, was finally selected for the Army’s ALQ-144 program, initiated in 1975. The system went into production in 1979, and is still in production today. It is currently installed on more than 7,000 helicopters around the world.
1980s – Threats to VIP aircraft intensified as terrorists acquired man-portable IR missiles. U.S. agencies and several allied nations turned to BAE Systems, which developed tailored VIP aircraft protection programs, underscoring the company’s preeminence in IR protection technology.
1981 – A quick turnaround contract to put IRCM on AWACS in 90 days led to the development of protection systems for large and corporate aircraft.
1983 – In Operation Wild Turkey, BAE Systems' IRCM protected the space shuttle Enterprise against terrorist attack as it was flown to the Paris Air Show on the back of a 747.
1991 – BAE Systems won the Army’s Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract for a next-generation IR countermeasure, ATIRCM — the Advanced Threat IR Countermeasures System. ATIRCM contains a missile warning system and incorporates a laser for directable jamming of multiple IR threats.
1994 – First defeat of a MANPADS (ground launched) missile with the laser DIRCM developed by BAE Systems.
1998 – First defeat of an antiaircraft missile (air launched) with laser DIRCM developed by BAE Systems.
1999 – In world's first-ever demonstration of a laser-based directable countermeasure defeating IR-guided missiles, BAE Systems' Tactical Aircraft Directional Infrared Countermeasures (TADIRCM) defeats both surface-to-air and air-to-air IR-guided missiles at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
2000 – BAE Systems' Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures/Common Missile Warning System (ATIRCM/CMWS) successfully detects, tracks, and jams live missiles in sled testing at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.
2001 – The ATIRCM/CMWS successfully defeats all ten IR-guided missiles fired at it – singly and in multiples – during cable car testing at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
March 2002 – BAE Systems' Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) – installed in a drone aircraft – performs successfully against eight MANPAD missiles fired at it.
Sept. 2002 – BAE Systems delivers the first of the CMWS ordered by the U.S. Army for its helicopters taking part in Operation Enduring Freedom.
Nov. 2003 – BAE Systems and U.S. Army test CMWS flare dispensers aboard a CH-47 Chinook helicopter.
