The Associated Press May 15, 2003
Homeland Security to look for anti-missile devices for airliners
By Leslie Miller
High-tech companies will be asked to propose ways to protect commercial planes from shoulder-fired missiles, lawmakers said Thursday.
The Homeland Security Department also will ask two companies to build prototype devices, they said.
"This is a real breakthrough," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who is co-sponsoring a bill to equip 6,800 U.S. airliners with some form of anti-missile device. The cost is estimated at $10 billion.
Military aircraft use anti-missile technology, but the cost is high and the reliability open to debate. Still, since last fall's unsuccessful missile attack on an Israeli passenger jet in Africa, lawmakers and safety advocates have been pressing the government to look into the technology.
The federal study was ordered in April by Congress as part of the spending plan for the war in Iraq.
Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse did not release any details from it but said "the report provides a plan to determine if a viable technology exists to be deployed on commercial aircraft."
Schumer, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., said they were briefed on the study, and they held a news conference to discuss the findings.
Under their bill, the government would pay to retrofit commercial airliners now in the fleet, but would require the airlines to pay for the devices, which cost $1 million each, on new aircraft, Schumer said.
U.S. airlines, most of which are in financial trouble, say the government should pay all costs related to the devices if it is determined they should be placed on commercial planes.
"Aviation security is a national defense function," said Debby McElroy, president of the Regional Airline Association.
The head of the worldwide organization that represents U.S. and foreign-owned airlines said the legislation is well-intended but ineffective.
"It would be prohibitively expensive for states to underwrite and very difficult for governments to stay ahead of technologies which continually churn out new instruments of war," said Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of the International Air Transport Association.
John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a defense policy group, said infrared devices used to protect Air Force cargo planes from shoulder-fired missiles could be used on civilian aircraft.
They are not as effective against the latest generation of more accurate missiles, but a new generation of laser-guided anti-missile devices is in the works, Pike said.
Pike believes all 10,000 commercial passenger planes in the world need to be armed with the devices to reduce the threat to Americans.
Last November, terrorists fired two missiles that just missed an Israeli charter plane after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya. Officials believe al-Qaida launched the attack, which coincided with a bomb blast at a nearby hotel.
El Al, the Israeli airline, is believed to have anti-missile technology on its passenger aircraft.
The State Department on Wednesday told Americans to defer nonessential travel to Kenya because of indications of terrorist threats against U.S. and Western interests, including commercial planes.
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of Soviet-style SA-7s - heat-seeking rockets that can hit low-flying aircraft within 3 miles - are said to be available on the worldwide arms market for as little as several thousand dollars.
On the Net:
Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov
Department of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
