The negotiations have been underway for several months.
There are two A330 MRTTs destined for Australia undergoing final stages of their test program in Spain and if there are further holdups in deciding the site for the LAIRCM installation there could be additional delays in the delivery of the aircraft to the Australians.
The UK MRTT program, known as Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA), was given special dispensation from the US to have the system installed but the Australian program has yet to receive the same clearance.
The LAIRCM system is an active countermeasure that defeats the threat missile guidance system by directing a high-intensity modulated laser beam into the missile seeker.
In addition, the LAIRCM system automatically counters advanced IR missile systems with no action required by the crew.
The pilot will simply be informed that a threat missile was detected and jammed.