Trial begins for laser-jamming systems on commercial airlines

As we have written last month, tens of thousands of airline passengers will soon be flying on jets equipped with antimissile systems as part of a new government test aimed at countering terrorists armed with shoulder-mounted missiles. Such missiles proved very effective in the hands of the Mujahedien fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. More than 500,000 of these missiles (also called MANPADS, for Man-Portable Air Defense Systems) have been produced in the last three decades. Most of them are in the hands of regular armies, but tens of thousands are unaccounted for and the U.S. intelligence community believes that most of the twenty-seven listed terrorist organizations (listed, that is, by the U.S. Department of State) are in possession of them. If you are interested, you can also buy such missiles on the black market for a few thousand dollars a piece (more for more advanced versions). In the 1970s the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) used them in efforts to disrupt commercial flights to Israel, and in 2002 two shoulder-fired missiles narrowly missed an Israeli airliner jet as it took off with 261 passengers in Mombassa, Kenya.

USA Today’s Mimi Hall writes that three American Airlines Boeing 767-200s which fly daily round-trip routes between New York and California will be equipped with antimissile laser jammers this spring — part of a DHS $29 million trial. Jets will fly with the jammer device mounted on the belly of the plane, between the wheels. The device works with sensors, also mounted on the plane, which detect a heat-seeking missile and shoot a laser at it to send the missile veering harmlessly off course. Antimissile systems have been tested on cargo planes, but “this is the first time these systems have been tested on actual passenger airlines in commercial service,” says Burt Keirstead, director of commercial aircraft protection at BAE Systems, which developed the antimissile device. “It’s the ultimate consumer use of the equipment.” Passengers will be relieved to learn that no missiles will be test-fired at the planes, which will fly between New York’s Kennedy International Airport and the international airports in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The purpose of the tests is to determine how well the laser-jamming technology works on routine flights, how the devices affect fuel consumption, and how much maintenance they require, according to Keirstead. There has not been an attempt to take down a jet on U.S. soil with a shoulder-fired missile, but DHS has warned about the possibility because the portable, lightweight weapons can be bought on the black market. There have been numerous deadly attacks on military jets and cargo planes overseas, and several near collisions with passenger planes. Military planes already use laser-jamming technology, but using the systems on commercial airliners is much more controversial because of concerns about cost and maintenance. “If this is going to break down every other month vs. every fifth year, obviously that’s a big, big difference,” says Jim Tuttle of DHS’s Science and Technology division. Keirstead says the systems could be installed for somewhere from $500,000 to $1 million per plane, but it is unclear how much it would cost to maintain them. Airlines have balked at paying the cost, and Congress would have to decide whether the federal government would foot the bill.