ABSTRACT
Regarding the recent escape by an Israeli charter airline in which terrorists fired a pair of infrared(IR) SA-7 surface-to-air missiles at an Israeli passenger jet in Kenya late last year, the near-disaster
called attention to commercial aircraft's vulnerability to small, shoulder-launched weapons. Shoulderlaunched
missiles or MANPADS (man portable air-defense systems) have been a military staple for
decades. MANPADS are manufactured around the world and cost between $20 000 and $70 000 per
system by some estimates, more than 500 000 shoulder-fired missile systems now exist, and it only
takes one bought on the market to severely damage or even bring down a plane. They are easily
transportable, designed to be setup and fired by two people with minimal training, and have a range of
about 5 km. Since the infra-red threat is becoming more deadly one of the more challenging aspects is
the development of an urgently needed missile defense system, which enhances commercial passenger
aircrafts survive against currently deployed infrared missiles, with growth to handle future
generations of anti- aircraft missiles. Breakthroughs in the development of improved and smarter
target acquisition systems have made it necessary to strenuously develop new countermeasure
systems that can assure the survivability of large aircrafts
This is a crucial time for the aircraft-survivability community. Whether you operate in the
realm of susceptibility or vulnerability, in the realm of military or civilaviation, with an estimated
inventory of 500,000 shoulder-launched IR missiles around the world, IR jammers may become more
important to air travelers than comfortable seats and in-flight movies.
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