Saab offers MANPAD defense system
Company teams up with Naturelink and Chemring Countermeasures to test an infrared decoy system; deployment possible by 2008
Bad timing? Just days after the United States announced its interest in a UAV-based system to defend against shoulder-mounter missiles, Saab Avitronics announced that it had joined forces with Tk-based Chemring Countermeasures and Australia-based aviation firm Naturelink Aviation to develop a counter-MANPAD system that does not seem to use UAVs at all. Although details are scanty, Saab told reporters the system relies on ultraviolet-based missile approach warner and “a new, non-pyrotechnical type of IR decoy developed by Chemring Countermeasures.” — one that is advertised to solve safety issues associated with pyrotechnical decoys. Recent succesful tests in South Africa, the company said, used planes supplied by Naturelink, and that company may begin installing the system on its planes by the middle of 2008.
