Air travel has become an integral part of modern life. Terrorists have long understood this and have made commercial aviation one of their prime targets. Al Qaeda and its affiliates have both the motive and the means to bring down U.S. commercial aircraft with shoulder-fired missiles, also known as man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). No such attempt has yet been made against a U.S. carrier, but given the measures being taken to preclude 9/11 style attacks, the use of MANPADS will unavoidably become more attractive to terrorist. What might be done to prevent such an attack. We concentrate here on the capabilities and costs of onboard technologies to divert or destroy an attacking missile. Given the significant costs involved with operating countermeasures based upon current technology, we believe a decision to install such systems aboard commercial airliners should be postponed until the technologies can be developed and shown to be more compatible in a commercial environment. This development effort should proceed as rapidly as possible. Concurrently, a development effort should begin immediately that focuses on understanding damage mechanisms and the likelihood of catastrophic damage to airliners from MANPADS and other forms of man-portable weapons. Findings from the two development programs should inform a decision on the number of aircraft that should be equipped with countermeasures (from none to all 6,800 U.S. jet- powered aircrafts) and the sequence in which aircraft are to be protected.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Protecting Commercial Aviation Against the Shoulder-Fired Missile Threat


    Contributors:
    J. Chow (author) / J. Chiesa (author) / P. Dreyer (author) / M. Eisman (author) / T. W. Karasik (author)

    Publication date :

    2005


    Size :

    60 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Terrorist Threat to Commercial Aviation

    B. M. Jenkins | NTIS | 1989


    The Terrorist Threat to Commercial Aviation

    Jenkins, B. M. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1990


    AIR-FIRED MISSILE

    STAROVEROV NIKOLAJ EVGENEVICH | European Patent Office | 2018

    Free access

    Protecting Transportation Infrastructure against Radiological Threat

    Yaar, Ilan / Halevy, Itzhak / Berenstein, Zvi et al. | Wiley | 2015