BAE tests counter-missile system on American Airlines aircraft

DHS launched its C-MANPADS (Counter-Man Portable Air Defense System) in January 2004, tasking Northrop Grumman and BAE with adapting existing military missile-defense technology for protecting commercial aviation. The companies were given about $45 million each and eighteen months, but the systems they proposed were deemed too expensive. DHS has now awarded BAE Systems and American Airlines a $29 million

contract to test laser jammer technology on scheduled commercial airline flights as a defense against shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile attacks. The contract calls for installing BAE’s JetEye infrared laser jamming device on project partner American’s aircraft making scheduled flights across the U.S. The contract runs through April 2009. i]Aviation Week[/i]’s John Doyle reports that this is a new phase in DHS’ four-year study of technologies to counter small missile attacks from MANPADS. It will be the first time directed infrared counter measures (DIRCM), originally developed to protect military aircraft, are used on a passenger aircraft in the DHS program. BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman have successfully tested similar technologies on cargo aircraft. Both use an infrared sensor to detect missile launches and then redirect the attacker’s guidance system with a laser burst. The differences between BAE’s JetEye and Northrop Grumman’s Guardian system have to do with the number of laser-emitting nods and their location on the body of the aircraft.

DHS officials initially said they would limit testing to scheduled cargo aircraft but Congress inserted additional money in the Fiscal 2007 homeland security appropriations bill to evaluate the feasibility of equipping commercial passenger aircraft with counter-MANPADS technology. MANPADS are manufactured in more than twenty countries, and are considered a serious threat to commercial aircraft. About 40 civilian aircraft have been struck by MANPADS resulting in about 25 crashes and 400 deaths since the 1970s, according to the U.S. State Department. Officials believe there are more than 750,000 of the small heat-seeking missiles around the world, and that at least some of them have found their way to terrorist organizations, criminal groups, and nonstate entities.