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July 12, 2004
System to defend planes against missiles tested successfully

HAARETZ: System to defend planes against missiles tested successfully

An airborne defense system against shoulder-launched missiles aimed at civilian aircraft underwent a successful test at Palmahim on Monday.

The system, dubbed FlightGuard, is being jointly produced by Israel
Aircraft Industries and Israel Military Industries. It is slated to be installed on El Al passenger aircraft.

The two companies have sold marketing rights to an American firm, Aviation Protection Systems, which has Israeli and American investors. The company bought two passenger planes earmarked for demonstrations for the Federal Aviation Authority in an effort to win approval for the products.

Monday's test was supervised by the air force and involved a Boeing 737 owned by Elta, an IAI company, on which the three main elements of the system were mounted: the radar, a control center and special infrared flares, which are invisible to the naked eye. The Elta-made radar spotted the Strella SA7 missile the moment it was launched - though it was a virtual missile launch - and the control system launched the flares. The virtual missiles chased after the flares as they flew away from the plane, which continued on its flight path.

Posted by Laurence Simon at July 12, 2004 04:59 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Virtual missles? Er....this doesn't seem like a very good test.

Posted by: shakespeare_101 [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 12, 2004 11:15 PM

well, if you are on a plane that they fire virtual missles at, you will be virtually safe! virtually all the time.

Posted by: bothenook [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 14, 2004 03:18 AM

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