Infrared countermeasure systems and technology have developed for half a century. Several types of infrared countermeasure systems，such as on-board infrared jamming system, infrared decoy and infrared smoke have appeared, and form a huge family of infrared countermeasure systems. In recent years, with the development of advanced infrared imaging guided weapons and technology, the jamming performance of traditional infrared countermeasure systems became more and more dissatisfactory. The technical concept of direct infrared countermeasure(DIRCM) was gradually proposed, which used high-power Xenon lamp or laser as sources of infrared energy. DIRCM has advantageous infrared countermeasure properties, such as the capability of jamming infrared imaging seeker by jamming, dazzling, in-band damaging and out-of-band damaging, etc, the capability of reuse and high jamming efficiency, which makes it suitable for new generation of infrared countermeasure system. The international research on DIRCM systems and technology in recent years was reviewed. And the operational principle, jamming damage mechanism， technology advantage of DIRCM system and the development status abroad were focused. And the research trends of DIRCM system and technology were forecasted in the next years.