Northrop Grumman has announced the delivery of the 500th Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) aircraft self-protection system to the U.S. Government.

Representatives of the U.S. Navy and Air Force were on hand to commemorate the event, which took place at the company's facility in Rolling Meadows, Ill.

"Your IRCM system is a high priority inside the U.S. Marine Corps because it protects the pilots out flying important missions every day," said Dan Johnson, Integrated Product Team lead for the Department of the Navy's DIRCM Systems. "It allows us to go where we need to go, whenever we need to be there."

"Since the program's inception, our team members have been focused and dedicated to producing high-quality self-protection systems to protect our nation's warfighters," said Carl Smith, vice president of Infrared Countermeasures Programs at Northrop Grumman's Land and Self Protection Systems Division.

"The work we do here provides the most robust, battle-proven capability to protect the warfighter on the battlefield today."

The only such aircraft protection system currently in full production, Northrop Grumman's DIRCM system is now installed or scheduled for installation on several hundred military aircraft to protect approximately 50 different types of large fixed-wing transports and rotary-wing platforms from infrared missile attacks.

The system functions by automatically detecting a missile launch, determining if it is a threat and activating a high-intensity laser-based countermeasure system to track and defeat the missile.