Who supplies CIRCM? Inside the Army's $4.8 billion helicopter-protection contract
Published September 22, 2026 / CIRCM supply chain
The U.S. Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a $4.84 billion contract for full-rate production of the Common Infrared Countermeasure, or CIRCM, through September 2035.
CIRCM protects military aircraft against heat-seeking missiles. Working with the aircraft's missile-warning system, it tracks the incoming threat and directs a laser toward its infrared seeker, disrupting its ability to follow the aircraft.
Northrop Grumman has already delivered more than 750 CIRCM shipsets, with the system operating across the AH-64 Apache, CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk fleets.
The new award follows the five-year CIRCM production contract awarded in 2021, originally valued at approximately $959 million.
new contract ceiling
Funding placed order by order
estimated completion
Full-rate production pathway
shipsets delivered
Apache / Chinook / Black Hawk
From warning-system cue to laser defeat
CIRCM receives the warning-system handoff before acquiring, tracking and jamming the threat.
Cue and process
The aircraft's missile-warning system cues CIRCM and the processor coordinates the response.
Acquire and track
The compact pointer-tracker acquires the incoming missile and follows its movement.
Jam the seeker
The quantum cascade laser directs modulated energy toward the missile's infrared seeker.
The preceding first-tier supplier base
Positive mapped subcontract obligations, FY2021-FY2025
Mimir's FY2021-FY2025 data identifies 12 first-tier supplier sites across Northrop Grumman's preceding CIRCM awards, representing approximately $146 million in mapped subcontract obligations.
Almost all of that value passed through three specialist operations:
DRS Daylight Solutions
San Diego, California
Quantum cascade laser technology used to disrupt incoming missile seekers
Recorded as Daylight Defense in the subcontract data
Leonardo UK
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Compact pointer-trackers that direct the laser toward the threat
Teledyne Advanced Electronic Solutions
Lewisburg, Tennessee
System processing units and high-reliability electronic assemblies
The two Leonardo operations alone represented approximately 89% of mapped first-tier subcontract value.
Northrop Grumman holds the prime contract. Beneath it, however, the historical first-tier value has been concentrated around three highly specialized capabilities: the laser, the pointer-tracker and the processing hardware.
If CIRCM deliveries expand under the new contract, these are some of the supplier operations through which that growth is likely to pass.
U.S. Department of War contract announcement, U.S. Army CIRCM system description, Northrop Grumman CIRCM program information, Leonardo DRS quantum cascade laser announcement, Leonardo UK pointer-tracker announcement, USAspending, FPDS and Mimir Data Platform and Modeling.
Mimir analysis of positive, adjusted first-tier subcontract records associated with preceding Northrop Grumman CIRCM awards, FY2021-FY2025. Supplier sites are defined at CAGE level. Figures are rounded. The $4.84 billion award value is a contract ceiling; funding and work locations will be determined through individual orders.