Posted on 07/18/2014 12:22:55 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is calling for commercial airplanes to be equipped with missile defense systems after a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday.
Kirk said Friday in an interview with CNN that the missile defense system would prevent a repeat of Thursday's crash, which killed the 298 passengers aboard the flight.
"I would have another suggestion that there is a system called DIRCM, which could potentially defeat heat-seeking missiles looking to shoot down a civilian airliner," Kirk said after calling for "one hell of a wrongful death suit" to be filed against Russia.
"It is an active defense system," Kirk continued. "DIRCM cost about $2 million each to blind a heat-seeking missile that is coming at you."
U.S. and Ukraine officials have said believe the flight was shot down by Russian separatists who have been battling Kiev in a dispute over the country's shared border with Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Ukraine bears responsibility for shooting down the jetliner because the incident occured in the latter country's airspace.
Kirk said Friday that the evidence thus far points to Russia as being the culprit. "It does appears the Buk missile system is so complicated that it would need a back-up from a nation state, like Russia," he said. "That would mean that Russian armed forces are directly involved in this wrongful death of roughly 300 people."
Only one of the nearly 300 passengers who were on board the downed plane have been found to be a U.S. citizen thus far, but Kirk said he still hoped the Department of Justice would get involved in the investigation of the incident.
"I want to hear that the Department of Justice will bring one hell of a wrongful death suit against Russian assets that are located in the United States to make sure there is a significant cost paid by Russia for this action of shooting down an international airliner with a weapons system that is directly related to the Russian forces," he said.
The whole damn world is a war zone. So lets just ground all aircraft! Any rebel or idiots with even hand held rockets can infiltrate any landing or take off pattern and shoot down aircraft. It is coming to the entire world.
Unless he believes that Flight 800 was shot down by a missile, then this is a unique event.
But being in Washington for so long he is always looking for a solution before there is even a problem.
Emphasis mine
I hate politicians who open their mouths because they feel they have something must be done mentality. If Sen. Kirk is accurately describing how the DIRCM system works it would NOT be effective against the BUK missile. Everything I have read is the system uses radar both vehicle based and a semi-active homingin the missile itself. There is NO heat seeking involved. The DIRCM was designed to be a countermeasure against heat seeking MANPAD missiles not SAM systems like the BUK. Kirk should keep his piehole shut until he can actually make a knowledgeable statement.
Right. An airline willing to fly over a war zone because it is a shorter route, and thus saves a few buck in fuel costs, is going to spend $2M per plane. Right.
We need shields against Senators like him —
There is no shield against missiles that fly a mile a second.
Once you militarize a civilian airplane you make it a legit target.
Just do not fly over war zones.
Watch what you wish for with that wrongful death suit.
If some American citizen say from Detriotastan goes over to the middle east and fights for some terrorist group and shoots down a plane should America be sued?
It’s not as simple as dumping flares or chaff when you have a missile coming at you, the aircraft has to be able to maneuver quickly. Commercial airliners can’t do that. Many of todays SAM systems have ECM counter measures built in.
True.
How about we just mount a AN/ALQ-124 on every aircraft.
It also uses video tracking as well. Without going into the specifics it can track and lock onto a target using it’s video camera.
Sure! Why not?
Make sure the muzzie airlines get them, first, along with spares and training.
Makes all kinds of sense ...
on the goofy scale of 1-10...this is a 12.
And from their Washington splendor, they have become so superior that they don't seem to see what they themselves have become.
Lobbyists never let a tragedy go to waste.
A plastic shopping bag would be preferable.
In 2002, a year after “911” I was at a law enforcement conference. One of the sessions was for high level folks and was being given by the newly formed Dept. of Homeland Security. I was not supposed to be in the room but nobody said anything. It was a very big conference room and held about 200 people. In the middle of the conference room were tables full of tubes and metal pieces of stuff scattered about. It was pieces and parts of MANPADS. The reason for the session was to teach local law enforcement how to identify the parts of the devices so they could go back home and teach others. Why? Because at this point in time, 12 years ago, the Feds had already discovered that numerous MANPADS had been already smuggled in to the United States by the bad guys. There were uniformed Air Force in the room and they said that “all they have to do is point and shoot and the kill zone is a 40 mile radius around any US airport”. They explained that the MANPADS “are cheap and small and can be pulled out of the back seat of a car, fired and by the time the airliner is hit the shooter is long gone”.
Because of the altitude a MANPAD could not have shot down the airliner that was just shot down but it could have easily been shot down at low altitude.
Bottom line? There are likely hundreds if not thousands of MANPADS purchased on the black market or nowadays supplied by middle east bad guys sitting hidden in the US along with sleeper cells just waiting to wreck things. Because our borders have been wide open for years there is nothing we can do about this and the situation is getting worse by the day as more unknown people enter the United States.
Happy flying....
Well I think he caught a lot of flack, but his resume seems pretty solid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kirk
If Imam Obama would quit giving missiles to our muzzie enemies, the chances of going boom in the air would drop substantially.
No way
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