ITT Corp says it has overcome problems with a critical technology that is at the heart of its campaign to win a major order for survivability equipment for US Army helicopters.

Demonstration tests earlier this year revealed unspecified problems for the fibre-optic lines connecting the missile-warner, pointer-tracker and laser jammer of ITT's proposed solution [see video]for the common infrared countermeasures (CIRCM) contract, says Bob Lawler, ITT's business development manager.

The army plans to soon release a request for proposals for the CIRCM contract, igniting a competition to place self-protection systems on thousands of army helicopters. The same gear is also likely to become the standard for all US military helicopters, with the export market to follow.

"We're talking about problems we identified with fibre-optics during army testing of late last year," Lawler says. "We've already instituted the fixes for that. We're just waiting to test them right now. We're within weeks or months of having the solution to the fibre optic [problems]."

ITT has gambled heavily on the success of fibre-optic technology in the infrared wavelength in its bid to usurp Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems for the CIRCM contract.

In 2004, when ITT decided to develop its own IRCM product, the company had identified fibre-optics as a potential game-changing technology. Fibre optic lines allow ITT to use a distributed aperture approach to watch for incoming missiles, rather than be limited to a single sensor and jam head.

The technology also enables ITT's open architecture approach, as the system can accommodate any combination of missile-warner, pointer/tracker and jam head, Lawler says.

Its competitors, however, decided the current state of fibre-optics for infrared applications remains too immature to offer as the key technology for its CIRCM proposals. A Northrop executive has said fibre-optics need a "few years of development".

Lawler acknowledges the state of fibre optics is less than fully mature in the CIRCM application. "I would be less than honest if I told you everything went perfect [in the demonstrations last year]," he says. "But we certainly believe that fibre optic technology is to the point where it is mature enough to move forward."

Although the tests identified problems that have since been fixed, Lawler says, the overall results were "not perfect but favourable".

ITT's proposal for CIRCM includes offering an internally-developed pointer-tracker and a laser developed by partner Lockheed Martin, which recently acquired Aculight Corporation. The ITT proposal also includes BAE's existing common missile warning system.

Source: Flight International