The Luftwaffe is equipping 23 A400Ms with DIRCM programs, provided by Elbit Programs, to conduct tactical operation in eventualities with MANPADS risk.
The primary of the German Air Pressure’s (Luftwaffe) A400M airlifters has been retrofitted with DIRCM (Directed InfraRed Counter-Measure) safety programs and handed again to the service, introduced Airbus on Sep. 11, 2025. The combination work was carried out by Airbus Defence at its facility in Seville, Spain.
This comes slightly over 4 months after Airbus was contracted by the German Federal Workplace of Bundeswehr Gear, Info Know-how and In-Service Help (BAAINBw) to equip 23 of A400Ms with the system. DIRCM protects plane in opposition to anti-air missiles that depend on infrared detection, countering them through the use of directed vitality to disrupt the missile’s seeker head.
On the time of the contract award, the DIRCM system was already being put by means of its paces on a German A400M at Airbus’ facility in Seville, stated the corporate in a Jun. 6 press launch. The photographs now present that airframe, 54+35, flying residence after receiving the DIRCM system, though no assertion was launched by the Luftwaffe, Bundeswehr or the BAAINBw on the matter.
Germany’s @team_luftwaffe 🇩🇪 is flying residence its first #A400M with a model new DIRCM safety system! DIRCM stands for ‘Directed Infrared Counter Measures’ and protects the airlifter from missiles with infrared seekers. In all, Airbus will equip 23 German A400Ms with DIRCM… pic.twitter.com/jqW0anQdFK
— Airbus Defence (@AirbusDefence) September 11, 2025
German A400M DIRCM improve program
Together with Seville, different Airbus amenities in Manching and Getafe may even retrofit the DIRCM system on the remainder of Germany’s A400M fleet throughout scheduled upkeep cycles. The system is anticipated to be licensed by summer time 2025, and your complete fleet is slated to be retrofitted with the DIRCM by 2032.
Airbus says that the 23 plane chosen for the DIRCM are these concerned in tactical operations, together with medical evacuation missions in disaster areas. The logistical variant of the A400M utilized in customary long-range troop, heavy armoured automobiles, helicopters or specialised civil engineering gear transport, have been excluded.
As of Dec. 2024, Germany is working 48 out of its 53 ordered A400Ms, based mostly on the 62nd Air Transport Wing (LTG 62) Wunstorf. In service with the Luftwaffe for over ten years, following the primary supply on Dec. 18-19, 2024, the German A400Ms logged 51,000 flight hours, with 25,000 of them since January 2022.
Germany additionally absolutely retired its C-160 Transall and disbanded the Air Transport Wing 63 in 2021 to make means for the A400M. The plane is the mainstay of German, British and French strategic airlift fleets. The A400M can also be cleared to refuel the Eurofighter Storm, Dassault Rafale, MV-22B Osprey, E/A-18G Growler and F/A-18E/F Tremendous Hornet.
J-MUSIC DIRCM sensor
Because it now seems with the present A400M, the DIRCM set up is a comparatively easy course of that received accomplished in a couple of months, assuming the airframe (54+35) had gone in for the work a couple of weeks previous to when the contract was introduced. We are able to see the DIRCM turret, a small glass dome-like construction visibly protruding outdoors the airframe on the entrance facet fuselage, between the ‘Luftwaffe’ marking and the entrance entry door, whereas one other turret might need been put in under the tail.
The DIRCM system, J-MUSIC – developed by Israeli firm Elbit Programs, may have additionally required connecting it with the plane’s mission programs contained in the cockpit and the pilot interfaces utilizing particular wiring or cabling. The certification will confirm if its operation doesn’t intervene with the plane’s different programs.
The mission started shifting when the Price range Committee of the German Bundestag accredited on Jun. 4, 2025, the funds to equip 23 A400Ms with DIRCMs, in keeping with Hartpunkt. The BAAINBw then commissioned Airbus Defence and House “to put in the programs on the plane as a part of scheduled upkeep,” Harpunkt added.
Elbit then introduced on Jul. 28, 2025 the $260 million contract award from Airbus to produce the J-MUSIC for German A400Ms, to be executed over a six-year interval. The corporate says J-MUSIC DIRCM combines superior laser expertise with a high-frame-rate thermal imaging digital camera and a small, high-dynamic-range mirror turret.
An open programs structure permits seamless integration into any plane sort, with all kinds of missile warning programs and different protection gear. Its compact kind issue ensures minimal affect on plane efficiency and payload capability.
