Product: MANPADS - Man Portable Air Defense System Company: Elbit Systems Start of Development: 2004
There have been many global attempts to strike against commercial aircraft during the last 30 years. Some caused damage to the plane that led to emergency landings, however 24 strikes resulted in the plane crashing and in hundreds of fatalities.
In 2002, two shoulder-launched missiles were fired at an Arkia airplane as it took off from Mombasa Airport in Kenya with 250 passengers and crew members on board. The missiles missed the plane but the incident proved that such attacks are a constant threat for Israeli aircraft the world over.
Following the attempt in Mombasa, a number of technological options were examined in Israel for providing a response to the danger posed to aircraft by shoulder-launched missiles. None of them were found suitable for use in civil aviation. In the past, the common solution for protecting aircraft was explosive flares that produce heat and act to distract the missiles, but that don’t conform to safety regulations required on commercial aircraft.
At the beginning of 2009, with the maturing of laser-based stealth technology, a decision was made to initiate the “Sky Shield” program and to acquire laser-based electro-optic systems to be installed on Israeli airlines’ civilian aircraft.
Elbit Systems had already begun developing systems for protecting light aircraft and helicopters in 2004. As a result of the “Sky Shield” program, the solutions were also adapted to civilian aircraft, thus giving birth to the C-MUSIC system - “a protective suit” against IR missiles that is installed in an external pod near the underside of the fuselage.
C-MUSIC includes infrared heat-based sensors with which the system locates heat-based shoulder-launched missiles directed at the aircraft. After identifying the threat, the system generates a laser beam that disrupts the missile and causes it to self-destruct at a safe distance from the plane.
The system interfaces with the aircraft systems and operates independently, without pilot intervention, even in scenarios of multiple simultaneous threats.
Elbit System’s technology became operational in 2014 and includes solutions for passenger, refueling, transportation and private aircraft. Smaller versions are installed in helicopters and small aircraft. The systems are sold to clients around the world and protect hundreds of aircraft and thousands of passengers every day.
