USAF deploys ‘urgent need' helicopter protection systems from Leonardo DRS

The US Air Force (USAF) has deployed Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) helicopters fitted with an urgent need protection system supplied by Leonardo DRS.

The HH-60G Pave Hawk CSAR helicopter has been equipped with an urgent need protection system supplied by Leonardo DRS. (US Air Force)

The US-based subsidiary of the Italian company announced on 18 March that the USAF had for the first time used operationally an HH-60G fitted with the AN/AAQ-45(V) Distributed Aperture Infrared Countermeasure (DAIRCM) system fitted under a Joint Urgent Operational Needs Statement (JUONS).

According to Leonardo DRS, the AN/AAQ-45(V) DAIRCM has been developed by the company’s Airborne & Intelligence Systems, Daylight Solutions, and Electro-Optical & Infrared Systems business units.

As previously noted by Jane’s , the AN/AAQ-45(V) DAIRCM is an aircraft survivability system that combines missile detection, hostile fire indication, and situational awareness with a missile defeat capability that tracks and jams incoming threats. Spun out from technology originally developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, the system uses a single sensor for two-colour infrared (IR) missile warning and a wide field-of-view gimbal for laser-based directed IR countermeasures.

In its statement, Leonardo DRS did not indicate how any of its systems had been delivered to the USAF, which operates 67 HH-60G helicopters across the active force, 17 in the Air National Guard, and 15 in the Air Force Reserve.