U.S. Army buys $1 billion in infrared helicopter missile shields By Dan Parsons | May 5, 2021 Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 44 seconds. The U.S. Army has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract worth nearly $1 billion to equip its helicopters with infrared jammers designed to blind incoming heat-seeking missiles. Northrop will build common infrared countermeasures (CIRCM) for Army combat helicopters through April 2026 under the $959 million contract awarded April 30. Northrop was the sole company to bid for the contract, according to a Defense Department announcement. Northrop Grumman Future Vertical Lift (FVL) Conceptual Artist Rendering The Army plans to buy more than 1,000 CIRCM suites for the AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook. Designed with an open-architecture backbone that allows both integration onto various aircraft and future software and hardware upgrades, CIRCM also likely will protect the Future Attack Recon Aircraft (FARA) and Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) from enemy anti-aircraft weapons.