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Science & Technology
Night Stalker Chinook Special Operations Helicopters Have New Laser Countermeasures System
2020-01-06
[War Zone] Directional infrared countermeasure (DIRCM) systems, which use lasers to blind and confuse the seeker on infrared-homing missiles, are becoming an increasingly ubiquitous feature on U.S. military helicopters and other aircraft. Now a picture has emerged that is one of the first to show an MH-47G Chinook from the U.S. Army's elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the Night Stalkers, with such a defensive suite, known as the AN/AAQ-24.

The U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command, which oversees the 160th, posted the picture of the DIRCM-equipped MH-47G on its Instagram page on Jan. 3, 2020. The caption does not say where or when the picture was taken.

Long, long overdue.
Posted by:Besoeker

#4  which use lasers to blind and confuse the seeker on infrared-homing missiles

And back-calculate the trajectory, and feed the launch coordinates to an anti-battery weapon?
Posted by: Glenmore   2020-01-06 17:38  

#3  https://www.northropgrumman.com/Capabilities/DIRCM/Pages/default.aspx
The AN/AAQ-24(V) Directional Infrared Countermeasure (DIRCM) system is the only DIRCM system in production today that will protect aircraft from today's infrared guided missiles. Traditional IR countermeasures are not effective against the modern IR missiles that are growing in popularity among terrorist groups and in third world countries.
Posted by: b   2020-01-06 07:56  

#2  Along with a few others, the Army Research Lab (ARL) has been working the non-trivial aviation countermeasures problem for years. Decoy flares (see graphic above) have been the traditional approach, but you can only put so many flare pods and flares on an aircraft. A farmer using a Lincoln welder on the ground would set off older countermeasures systems and you'd be out of flares in no time. Point A to point B was not so bad, orbiting a designated 'kill box' for hours, yet another (if you're out of flares).

The downing of Extortion-17 may have had something to do with it.

Lastly, decoy flares are very expensive. Dated info, but in 2006 the damn things were over $120. per each.
Posted by: Besoeker   2020-01-06 07:26  

#1  Cool read.

It's somewhat curious that the urgent SOCOM requirement for DIRCM systems only came in 2015

Just about the time patrolling the southern border became an election issue.
Posted by: Skidmark   2020-01-06 06:42  

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