Missile defense at Heathrow

El Al, Israel’s national carrier, is to become the first passenger airline operating from Britain to deploy anti-missile technology on its planes to safeguard against a terrorist strike.

Israel’s security services are particularly worried about the threat of a shoulder-launched missile being fired at an El Al flight out of Heathrow, which they regard as a “high risk” airport. In such an event the new anti-missile system will automatically trigger decoy flares to divert the path of an incoming heat-seeking rocket. . .

It will also be deployed on flights operating from other sensitive European airports. However, it will not be actively deployed on El Al services to and from America, which forbids flare-based counter-measures, apparently on safety grounds.

Posted by David on June 20, 2004 12:12 PM