Jet With Anti-Missile System Leaves LAX
Pastor Dale Morgan
Jet With Anti-Missile System Leaves LAX*
Jan 17 7:25 PM US/Eastern
By JOHN ANTCZAK
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An MD-10 cargo jet equipped with Northrop Grumman's
Guardian anti- missile system took off from Los Angeles International
Airport on a commercial flight Tuesday, the company said.
The FedEx flight marked the start of operational testing and evaluation
of the laser system designed to defend against shoulder- fired
anti-aircraft missiles during takeoffs and landings.
Adapted from military technology, Guardian is designed to detect a
missile launch and then direct a laser to the seeker system on the head
of the missile and disrupt its guidance signals. The laser is not
visible and is eye-safe, the company said.
"For the first time, we will be able to collect valuable logistics data
while operating Guardian on aircraft in routine commercial service,"
said Robert L. DelBoca, vice president and general manager of Northrop
Grumman's Defensive Systems Division.
During the current test phase, which concludes in March 2008, nine MD-
10s equipped with the Guardian system will be in commercial service.
Katie Lamb-Heinz of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems said all those
aircraft will be freighters. The ultimate goal is to defend passenger
airliners.
The testing is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's
Counter-Man Portable Air Defense Systems program. BAE Systems has also
been working for the government on a similar airliner defense system and
has successfully tested it.
John Pike, a defense analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, Va.,
think tank, suggested that development of the system was the lesser of
issues for the airline industry.
"I think the problem is making the numbers work in the sense of figuring
out whose going to pay for it," he said.
More than capital costs, airlines are likely to be most concerned about
the costs of maintenance and aircraft downtime, he said.
"They've gotten these airliners now (so) that they are just remarkably
maintenance-free. They've also gotten these airlines to the point that
they've got razor thin margins," he said.
No passenger plane has ever been downed by a shoulder-fired missile
outside of a combat zone. But terrorists linked with al-Qaida are
believed to have fired two SA-7 missiles that narrowly missed an Israeli
passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2002.
The first commercial flight with the Guardian system followed 16 months
of tests on an MD-11, an MD-10 and a Boeing 747 using simulated launches
of shoulder-fired missiles.
The Guardian system appears as a pod with eye-like features attached to
the belly of the FedEx MD-10, a freight version of what was originally
the three-engine widebody DC-10 airliner.
DHS gave Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems $45 million each in 2004 to
adapt military defense systems to civilian airliners, requiring
improvements because military systems need too much maintenance and
mistakenly fire too often.
A government report obtained by The Associated Press last summer said
that both the Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems prototypes still don't
meet the reliability standards set by the DHS, and it could be 20 years
before every U.S. passenger airplane has such a system.
Billions of dollars would have to be spent to protect all 6,800
commercial U.S. airliners.
The report said testing showed that the systems can be installed on
commercial aircraft without impairing safety; at least one company can
supply 1,000 systems at a cost of $1 million each; and operation and
maintenance will cost $365 per flight, above the $300-per-flight goal.
Northrop Grumman said Tuesday that during the 16-month flight test
program a ground-based "electronic missile surrogate" was used to
simulate launches and each time Guardian functioned as designed,
automatically detecting the simulated launch and mock missile.
"Had the threats been real, an invisible laser beam safe to humans would
have disrupted the missile guidance system and protected the aircraft,"
the company statement said.
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Northrop Grumman: http://www.northropgrumman.com
BAE Systems: http://www.baesystems.com