Announcing another strategic alliance with a European defense company, today Northrop Grumman Corporation revealed it had teamed with  SELEX Galileo, a Finmeccanica company, to compete for the U.S. Army’s Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) program.

SELEX Galileo, as noted in B&B recently, is assisting the Pakistani government in its development of its own UAV capability.

CIRCM is a US Army program to provide light and medium helicopters with a laser-based defense against infrared-seeking antiaircraft missiles and other IR “current and future IR threat systems.”  Northrop/SELEX Galileo’s proposed system for CIRCM program, uses the ECLIPSE micro pointer/tracker, a  relatively low-cost compact lightweight stabilized laser transmitter, designed for an earlier Northrop Grumman directed CIRCM system, NEMESIS, integrating it into a new”4th generation lightweight, highly reliable Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) system specifically designed for medium and light helicopter protection.” (from Northrop’s release).

via Northrop Grumman and SELEX GALILEO Team to Compete for U.S. Army’s Common Infrared Countermeasures Program (NYSE:NOC).