Missile-protected El Al planes may be banned from U.S. airports

Israel Insider ^ | April 23, 2004 | Ellis Shuman

[GeronL]

The US won't allow planes with missile defense??? huh??

[Bobby777]

all of this expense, preparation, worry, concern, regulation, development, testing, deployment, death, destruction because of Islamic terrorists wreaking havoc all over the world ...

I wonder if, one day, the world will have enough and outlaw Islam ... sounds far-fetched but I wonder how long all this accomodation will have to take place ... China would not allow Muslims on airplanes after September 11 ... I don't know if they have relaxed it (I think they have) but it was right after the attacks ...

[F14 Pilot]

PING!

[GeronL]

That rule is right up there with not being allowed to search more than 2 arab males per flight.

Makes oh so much 'sense'

[Bobby777]

the flare dispensers might be a risk at public airports ... the flares are discharged as the aircraft departs and arrives (without any launches) and of course, if there are launches detected ... you could see Russian aircraft in Afghanistan kicking out tons of flares as they took off to protect them from Stingers as much as possible ...

[GeronL]

well, I am sure they could be set only to launch flares if they detect a missile.

[Travis McGee]

How can effective flares not be a fire risk? Imagine them cascading down on a forest outside of Denver or LA.

[dufekin]

We won't even allow security screens to process more than two Arabs or Muslims per plane. If we can't keep more than two terrorists (under the almost-always-true assumption that they're all Arabs or Muslims) from boarding a plane, why would we try to keep terrorists from attacking the plane externally? It just wouldn't make sense. If we're going to be vulnerable...why cover any holes at all?

[Travis McGee]

We're going to find out, sooner or later, if Abdul will pray, to a glowing crater.

[Lancey Howard]

And SUVs must be redesigned so that in an accident, they take an equal amount of damage as a Toyota Camry. It's only fair.

[Texasforever]

It may make more sense than you think. What if we needed to shoot down one of these planes?

[Bobby777]

I think they may not have launch detection systems ... they'd have to have 360-degree, at least below the aircraft and forwards, side, and rearward-looking ...

that's why many military takeoffs just fire the flares on every approach and every takeoff in areas where the concerns are ...

[yonif]

What if we needed to shoot down one of these planes?

If we really needed to shoot down one of these planes, we would suceed using fighter jets, etc.. This system is aimed mostly at shoulder fired missiles.

[Bobby777]

yes, my friend ... it is going to come to that I'm afraid ... they are committed to that cause ... and these 5-a-day call to prayers are not a good sign ... cities are going to have to ban such ...

[F14 Pilot]

It is ECM pods and it can not be Flares or Chafs.
Flares jam both civilian & military radars and can also be harmful for other flights.

[PLMerite]

There's a new system, MAWS - Missile Approach Warning System (AN/AAR-47), that detects the IR signature of a launched SAM and only *then* starts ejecting flares.

They've got 'em on most everything military now, I think.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/equip/an-aar-47.htm

[Bobby777]

how can ECM avert infrared missiles? ... ECM could interfere with instruments (if radios can, ECM can for sure) ... ECM won't work against infrared ... perhaps the rotating laser spoof or flares ... heat spoofing only ...

[Bobby777]

yeah, I know many of the military planes can detect ... civilian aircraft, airliners, is what I wonder about ...

one would expect certain planes, like Air Force One, NAOC, Looking Glass, etc. all have those systems ... but I think it's still cost-prohibitive on civilian airliners ... of course it's cheaper than a plane going down but adding it to the whole fleet of U.S. airliners would be pretty expensive I think ...