Agreement Keeps Aircraft Defensive System at Robins

ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --- Maintenance personnel here will begin to work on an advanced weapons system that protects large cargo aircraft from attacks from shoulder-fired missiles in a Dec. 11 contract agreement between Air Force and Northrop Grumman officials.>> Brig. Gen. Mark A. Atkinson, the 402nd Maintenance Wing commander, and Doug Lawton, the supply chain management vice president of Northrop Grumman Corp., signed a contract to perform work on the Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures system, or LAIRCM, at Robins Air Force Base.>> Northrop Grumman officials designed LAIRCM to counter the increasing threat that large, slow-moving cargo aircraft face from shoulder-fired missiles and missiles launched from vehicles. The system automatically detects the heat-seeking missiles and puts out a signal to confuse its path and direct it away from the aircraft.>> "The agreement culminates a lot of hard work that has been done behind the scenes by our folks who generate business for us, who generate workload for us, (and) who monitor our business operations," General Atkinson said. "Our folks who do that along with the contractor folks from Northrop Grumman have done a lot of work together. We've looked for the best way to provide the warfighter the LAIRCM capability. This agreement puts in concrete that commitment to each other, to continue that partnership and to continue to look for the most effective and efficient ways to provide this system to the warfighter.">> Phil Robinson, Northrop Grumman's system manager for LAIRCM, said one result of the agreement is that the company will move its LAIRCM hub from Fort Walton Beach, Fla., to the Warner Robins area in Georgia. He also said the agreement means rather than Robins AFB working only on LAIRCM systems on Air Force planes, it will also maintain the system on other planes throughout the U.S. armed forces that are equipped with the system.