Lasers & Sources

QCL-based IR countermeasures solution announced by Northrop Grumman-Daylight Solutions

Oct. 11, 2011

Rolling Meadows, IL--The Daylight Solutions Solaris QCL-based laser system was successfully integrated into Northrop Grumman's CIRCM program.

Gail Overton

Dr. Timothy Day, chairman and CEO of Daylight Solutions, Paul Larson, president, COO, Daylight Solutions, Carl Smith, VP of infrared countermeasures for Northrop Grumman, and Jeffrey Palombo, VP and GM of Northrop Grumman's Land and Self Protection Systems Division, unveil the companies' CIRCM laser and pointer-tracker offering.

Rolling Meadows, IL--Successful integration and test of the Solaris Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL)-based system into the Northrop Grumman offering for the United States Army's mission-critical Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) program was announced by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and Daylight Solutions (San Diego, CA).

Solaris is the result of a multiyear effort by a Northrop Grumman-Daylight Solutions team, and is part of a fully compliant and mature CIRCM system solution. The capabilities of Daylight Solutions' QCL-based laser solution have been validated through multiple government tests to protect both fixed and rotary wing aircraft against missile threats, such as man portable air defense systems (MANPADS).

"With Daylight Solutions, we are adding the leaders in QCL-based laser technology to the Northrop Grumman CIRCM solution," said Jeffrey Palombo, sector VP and GM of Northrop Grumman's Land and Self Protection Systems Division. "Our candidate system offers the warfighter the most mature aircraft protection available in an open architecture package. Open architecture provides efficiency, economy and long-term platform protection as new threats emerge."

The Northrop Grumman-led CIRCM team also includes SELEX Galileo, which will provide the Economic Compact Lightweight Pointer-Tracker System (ECLIPSE) jam head. Northrop Grumman and SELEX Galileo have been working in partnership on advanced IRCM systems for more than 15 years.

Northrop Grumman's IRCM systems have been installed on over 750 aircraft representing 50 different aircraft types, including large and small fixed-wing, rotary-wing and tilt-wing platforms.

SOURCE: Northrop Grumman; www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=234402

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.