Paris, France--During this week's Paris Air Show 2011 (www.paris-air-show.com), Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC; Los Angeles, CA) and SELEX Galileo (Arlington, VA), a Finmeccanica Company, announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly pursue the international directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) market. The MOU says that the partnership capitalizes on the experience and capabilities of the companies in the development and production of laser-based DIRCM systems, further strengthens their existing industry leading DIRCM strategic alliance, and enables the two companies to aggressively target the "rest-of-the-world" DIRCM marketplace.
"There are few collaborations in the defense industry that are as successful and long lived as the Northrop Grumman - SELEX Galileo alliance," said Jeff Palombo, sector VP and GM of Northrop Grumman's Land and Self Protection Systems Division. "We have been hugely successful protecting aircraft, and this document will further strengthen our collaboration and allow us to focus on our international customers as we launch a fully exportable DIRCM system."
For almost 20 years, Northrop Grumman and SELEX Galileo say they have been the preferred supplier of DIRCM systems to the U.S., the U.K., and close allies, with more than 750 DIRCM systems delivered and supported. Following in the footsteps of Northrop Grumman – SELEX Galileo architecture, the international DIRCM system will encompass an open framework that permits the integration of various sensors, pointer/trackers, and lasers.
In related DIRCM news, Northrop Grumman Corporation announced that its DIRCM systems currently deployed with U.S. and allied forces have achieved more than one million operational hours in service.
"Of the more than one million hours accumulated to date, the majority have been logged under deployed and combat conditions, with an operational availability of over 99 percent for the past 13 consecutive years – performance unequaled in industry," said Jeff Palombo. Northrop Grumman's IRCM systems are now installed or scheduled for installation on several hundred military aircraft across the Department of Defense to protect approximately 50 different types of large fixed-wing transports and rotary-wing platforms from infrared missile attacks.
SOURCE: Northrop Grumman; www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=224977 and www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=224723
