"We hope to have FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) approval in
three to six months, then we can go ahead," said Israel Livnat,
president of Elta Systems, a unit of state-controlled Israel Aircraft
Industries.
Livnat said the system was a joint effort by Elta and US defense
company Raytheon. "We developed the radar and Raytheon developed the
decoy system."
The Raytheon/Elta system, dubbed "SafeFlight" combines Elta's missile
approach warning system with Raytheon's countermeasure dispensing
system. It operates independently, requires no pilot action or
training, involves minimal maintenance, and is invisible from air or
ground locations.
In operation, SafeFlight will detect an incoming missile "within
milliseconds" and divert it from the targeted aircraft, said Livnat,
who was attending an Israeli high-tech and venture capital conference
in New York.
"The missile threat is there," Livnat said after a session on
homeland security technologies. He said the missiles were leftovers
from the Muslim guerrilla war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in
the 1980s. Thousands of shoulder-held missiles were supplied to the
rebels by Washington and also were captured from the Soviets by the
mujahideen guerrillas.
Elta's missile warning system, part of its "Flight Guard" system is
already in operation on 150 military aircraft. It was recently
selected by the Israel Ministry of Transportation to outfit Israel's
commercial airliners.
Just last week, an El Al flight to Los Angeles, was diverted twice
over Canada amid security concerns. Although there were no details,
there was speculation it was because of a missile threat. Last year,
a missile was fired at another Israeli airliner taking off from east
Africa, but missed.
Amid fears that terrorists have obtained shoulder-held missiles, US
commercial airliners could soon be equipped with anti-missile
technology similar to systems being installed in Israeli planes, the
manufacturer said on Tuesday.