Experts: Arkia Airliner saved by secret defence systems

Ha'aretz Daily ^ | 29/11/02 | Roni Singer

[Cold Heat]

BTW, How is the music comming?

[reg45]

My news must use donkeys for delivery.

Dial-up modems ARE a pain!

[Tommyjo]

The colours have nothing to do with the UN. Since when did UN equipment, for example arms, come in UN Blue?. Headgear and flak jackets come in blue, but equipment such as vehicles are painted white.

Image of US soldier in Macedonia serving with UN.

http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/06/15/csmimg/0615101a.jpeg

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The launchers that were used were recovered. The launchers used were Russian-made Strela-2 rocket launchers. The Strela-2 was introduced in 1972, but it is based on 1950s technology.

The system is cruder and less reliable than more modern heat-seeking rocket systems such as the US-made Stinger and the Russian Igla. But the failure of the attack is more likely to be the result of incompetence than a technical malfunction.

The Strela-2 consists of a shoulder-mounted, reusable launcher fitted with an individual rocket. The rocket has a nitrogen-cooled heat-seeking system and will not fire until it has locked onto a heat-emitting target. But the heat-seeking system requires time to adjust its flight and hit its target - if the target is less than 500 metres away, it can miss.

[HamiltonJay]

I have a hard time buying this one.. unless the pilot knew it was being fired upon, which was highly unlikely at least in the first missle, he would not have activated any flares or decoys... Is it possible an automated system was triggered? Perhaps but not likely. Smells like conspiracy theory to me....

[CJinVA]

U. S. AIR FORCE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES LIVE-FIRE TESTS
OF LARGE AIRCRAFT INFRARED COUNTERMEASURES SYSTEM

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. -- Sept. 16, 2002 -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE: NOC) Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) system, chosen by the U.S. Air Force to protect its transport aircraft from the threat of heat-seeking missiles, has successfully completed live missile fire tests and has entered low-rate initial production……………

http://www.capitolsource.net/press_releases/laircm_livefire.html

[John Jorsett]

Very interesting. Using google, I found accounts about this system going back years. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if Israel has either gotten its hands on some of these or has duplicated the functionality itself.

[archy]

The dimwitted Terrorists were too close for their Missiles to acquire the heat source [if they were indeed heat seeking] after they launched.

And, of course, if they weren't heat-seekers but rather signals emission-seeking warheads after the aircraft's radar altimeter or transponders, the proper countermeasures would be not flares, but chaff dispensers.

And not all chaff is of the early *aluminum foil* strip type any more....

-archy-/-

[archy]

that damn "cannister" is model 9B17what is it?

Thermal battery unit for 9K32M rocket/launcher assembly.

-archy-/-