STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC
An acrimonious bidding war has erupted between BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman over the US Army's urgent call for active self-protection systems on helicopters.
Senior army leaders have encouraged the two competitors to work together to speed the delivery of a directed infrared countermeasure system with a multiband laser jammer to army units deployed in Iraq.
The appeal appears to have been spurned on both sides, with one senior executive for BAE Systems openly accusing his rival of inhibiting efforts to improve the safety of US combat troops.
"We were disappointed that another defence company was unwilling to heed the army's call for co-operation," says Christopher Ager, business development manager for BAE Systems Information and Electronic Warfare Systems in Nashua, New Hampshire.
The army wants the two companies to consider integrating a Northrop Grumman multiband laser into BAE Systems' Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures (ATIRCM) unit, which relies on a single-band laser and heat lamp.
But Northrop Grumman director of infrared countermeasures business development Jack Pledger says the idea is too risky, and instead has proposed that the army drop ATIRCM and buy Northrop Grumman's Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) unit, which already uses the multiband laser and is deployed on US special operations Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Lows.
Ager says Northrop Grumman failed to honour the army's request by refusing to allow BAE Systems access to the multiband laser technology. He says the army had already rejected the DIRCM system in two previous competitions in which the ATIRCM was selected.
Pledger says that Northrop Grumman DIRCM-equipped helicopters can be delivered to the army within four to six months of a signed contract.
Ager says BAE Systems is able to deploy ATIRCM at the same rate, or even faster, than the army's stated schedule, which has not been publicly released. Northrop Grumman's proposal to the army, he says, is disrupting the pace of ATIRCM deliveries to helicopters in conflict areas.
A potential complication for Northrop Grumman, says Ager, would be the need to integrate DIRCM with the BAE common missile warning system (CMWS) now being installed on many army helicopters.
Pledger says the CMWS integration would have to be studied if the army were to transfer the jammer programme to DIRCM.
Source: Flight International
