The invention generally relates to a pod based countermeasure dispensing system for external mounting on wide variety of manned aircraft. The pod based system is readily configurable for dispensing different types of infrared countermeasure (IRCM) devices and different types of radio frequency countermeasure (RFCM) devices at a rapid rate. The primary use of the rapidly dispensed IRCMs and RFCMs is to protect the host aircraft while ingress and egress maneuvers are performed in a hostile area. A secondary use of the pod based countermeasure dispensing system is for use in defending commercial aircraft from missile threats.