WASHINGTON (AP) – Teams led by BAE Systems and Northrup Grumman were chosen Wednesday to build and test prototypes for anti-missile systems to defend U.S. commercial planes against shoulder-fired rockets.
The Homeland Security Department said the companies will each get $45 million over the next 18 months. It’s the second phase of the agency’s effort to determine whether affordable, effective anti-missile systems can be deployed on commercial planes.
Last January, BAE, Northrup and United Airlines were chosen from among 24 companies that sought $2 million contracts to develop plans for using anti-missile technology and to analyze the economic, manufacturing and maintenance issues for placing such systems on civilian aircraft.
All three came up with plans that use lasers to redirect heat-seeking rockets away from aircraft engines. United’s plan was not considered as advanced, so it was dropped.
“We have been impressed with the progress made by these teams over the past six months,” Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said. “Taking aggressive action to understand how technology can address this potential threat is a high priority for us, and today we take the next significant step in developing systems that could protect commercial aircraft from enemies that would do us harm.”
Concerns about terrorists using lightweight rocket launchers to take down commercial airliners were raised in November 2002 when terrorists fired two SA-7 missiles that narrowly missed an Israeli passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya.
U.S. officials concluded al-Qaida probably was behind the attack, which coincided with a bomb blast at a nearby hotel.
Hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Soviet-style SA-7s – heat-seeking rockets that can hit low-flying aircraft within a range of three miles – are said to be available on the weapons market worldwide.
California Sen. Barbara Boxer is among congressional Democrats who have said the Bush administration is moving too slowly to develop an anti-missile system that would address an existing threat.
The U.S. commercial fleet contains about 6,800 planes. Outfitting them all with anti-missile systems would cost billions of dollars.
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