A typical precipitation hardened alloy, Cu-Co dilute alloy was selected to study the precipitation behavior and irradiation effect on precipitates. It is found that the principal effect of ion irradiation on the coherent precipitates is loss of coherency, and TEM cross-section observations show that the fraction of the incoherent precipitates is dependent on dose but not on dose rate during heavy ion irradiation. A typical precipitation hardened alloy, Cu-Co dilute alloy was selected to study the precipitation behavior and irradiation effect on precipitates. It is found that the principal effect of ion irradiation on the coherent precipitates is loss of coherency, and TEM cross-section observations show that the fraction of the incoherent precipitates is dependent on dose but not on dose rate during heavy ion irradiation.