Mentioned:Leonardo DRS
Leonardo DRS has been awarded a three-year Naval Air Systems Command contract to begin low-rate initial production of the AN/AAQ-45 DAIRCM aircraft survivability system for U.S. Marine Corps UH-1Y Venom and AH-1Z Viper helicopters. The award marks the transition of the integrated protection suite from Engineering and Manufacturing Development into production.
What's happening
- Leonardo DRS will produce the AN/AAQ-45 DAIRCM system under a three-year NAVAIR contract for low-rate initial production on two helicopter platforms.
- The contract covers hardware production, aircraft integration, systems engineering, program management and logistics support for the survivability system.
- The system integrates missile warning, laser warning, hostile-fire indication and directed infrared countermeasures into a single distributed-aperture architecture.
Why it matters
- The production award expands Leonardo DRS's capacity to deliver integrated aircraft survivability capabilities across the Marine Corps rotorcraft fleet at scale.
- DAIRCM addresses a critical protection gap for low-altitude helicopter operations exposed to infrared-guided missiles and man-portable air-defense systems.
- The transition from EMD to LRIP signals Navy confidence in the system's capability after successful testing and combat employment on other platforms.
Going deeper
- DAIRCM was developed following a 2015 Joint Urgent Operational Need Statement and fast-tracked by the Navy's Advanced Tactical Aircraft Protection Systems Program Office to bypass traditional acquisition timelines.
- The system has already been deployed on HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters and successfully tested on UH-1Y, AH-1Z and MH-60S platforms in 2018 and 2019.
- NAVAIR plans to equip seven helicopter types with DAIRCM, including the UH-1Y, AH-1Z, MH-60S, HH-60G, HH-60W, and AH-6/MH-6 platforms.
- The modular, lightweight design addresses size, weight and power constraints on small- and medium-sized aircraft requiring full-spectrum threat protection.
The fine print
- Contract value and specific production quantities for the Marine Corps platforms have not been disclosed by Leonardo DRS or NAVAIR.
- The contract covers a three-year period, but total program scope across all planned helicopter variants is not yet publicly detailed.
Source: theaviationist.com · Nov 11, 2026 · Drafted with Claude, reviewed by Industrial Base Alpha.
