Army digs in on copter-defense system

(EXCERPT) , By Rowan Scarborough THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The Army is sticking by a decision to develop its own countermissile
system to protect helicopters from the kind of attacks being committed
by Iraqi guerrillas, instead of buying an off-the-shelf model now on
special-operations aircraft and on Air Force One. The debate has
heated up inside the Army in the aftermath of 10 copters being shot
down in Iraq by die-hard Saddam Hussein loyalists. In some attacks,
the insurgents used heat-seeking portable missiles that existing,
less-advanced countermeasures failed to stop. The attacks have claimed
the lives of 49 soldiers. The rash of shoot-downs has prompted some
aviators and Army officials to say privately that the service should
begin buying an available system called the Directional Infrared
Counter Measure (DI...

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