Protecting Airliners From Missile Attack
by Justin Grey
A new system that aims to protect jetliners against missile attack has just completed a successful first flight on a scheduled American Airlines airliner travelling from New York to Los Angeles.
The UK-designed infrared missile defence method from BAE Systems – known as Jeteye – is part of a US program to test the suitability of such equipment for commercial aircraft.
“BAE Systems worked closely with the US Department of Homeland Security and the airline industry to develop an effective response to potential terrorist threats,” said BAE Systems’ director of the Jeteye program, Burt Keirstead. “It took a combination of ingenuity and perseverance to get to this point, and everyone involved is proud of the results.”
The system is to be installed on another two American Airlines 767 jets for further evaluation over the next nine months. This begins the final phase of a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program to test the suitability of missile protection equipment for commercial aircraft.
Previously, the technology was successfully evaluated on an American Airlines test aircraft and an ABX Air cargo aircraft. As part of the DHS Counter-Man-Portable Air Defense System (Manpads) program, Jeteye is to be installed on two AA 767-200 aircraft for daily domestic flights until March 2009. The service evaluation will demonstrate the system’s maintainability and reliability, as well as overall suitability with the airline industry. There will be no live-fire testing during these flights.
BAE Systems is partnered with American Airlines maintenance and engineering services that provided the test aircraft and engineering services for the development and refinement of Jeteye’s installation, operation and support.
Jeteye draws from expertise developed by BAE during decades of effort protecting military aircraft with directable infrared countermeasures technology. The DHS awarded BAE a contract of US$29 million for this final suitability evaluation phase of the Counter-Manpads program in January 2008. The company developed the Jeteye system during earlier phases of the program that began in January 2004 and has since has received US$105 million of funding.