Security experts have been spooked since 2002, when terrorists tried to take down an Israeli passenger jet flying out of Kenya with a pair of Soviet-made, shoulder-fired missiles.
Defense contractor Raytheon may have found a futuristic answer to the throwback threat: a microwave blaster that confuses the weapons’ guidance systems.
The Vigilant Eagle system uses a series of passive infrared trackers, surrounding an airport, that look out for missile exhaust. When these sensors detect a launch, data about the missile’s trajectory is sent to a control center, which in turn tells a billboard-size microwave array where to blast.
My Popular Mechanics article has a few more details.
Microwaves Vs. Missiles
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I feel sorry for any birds in the path of that microwave energy blast. Speaking of that, I wonder how much power (ERP) they must radiate in order to down the missle.
Most airliners can be seen from the ground when they are flying, what if someone makes a missile that can use a digital camera for its targeting. Isnt this something you can potentially make with commercial computer equipment, some intermediate programming, a digital camera, and a little know how with model rocketry?
What will the HPM do to protect against aircraft that are nowhere near airports? Not like airliners fly in outerspace they are probably still vulnerable to some variant of a SAM. Most model rockets can reach heights that airliners fly at.
This only looks like it protects airports, it doesnt protect much else. Where I live 15+ miles away from any airport, I can see quite alot of airliners almost all of the time. They come down to low altitude quite a ways from the airports they are landing at.
But who needs to build a homemade SAM when you can manufacture them overseas and bring them across the border.
Im not impressed with microwave airport beam guns.
What if the missile has a smokeless trail? Does this only work against specific manpad systems that have been manufactured in the past?
WHat about the amount of mortar and rocket attacks in Iraq, where is the HPM wonder gun. WHat if the terrorists use a direct fire rocket with no fancy guidance or computer system.
I wouldnt put much faith on the super ingenius track the missile smoke radar. And I would put zero faith in the remote hijacking the missiles electronics.
I dont want to know how much money is wasted on this MANPAD airport defense system. Do the terrorists have to use only HPM compliant MANPADS? Is there some industry standard they are going to have to comply to in the future?
Im kind of sick of useless junk that people think are useful. Whatever geeks we have in the Military need to get smacked out of their ego’s because they dont have the right vision it takes to protect a country and its citizens.
This is just as bad as spandex warriors. God help us.
what the hell do birds have to do with anything?
Michael:
Thank you for your brilliant ideas and novel viewpoint. Now get on back in, recess is almost over.
michael, the camera would be the targeter. as in the computer recognizes the airplane within the image and guides the missile into it (the camera is mounted on the nose of the missile. I beleive some model rockets you can buy can reach that high, nevermind something you can make illegally that the atf may not allow without all kinds of regulation. a simple guidance system, a camera, good rocket engineering, an onboard computer and you have a home built SAM that can hit an airliner with. It would even work through clouds because you can put a filter on the lens. this is all stuff you can buy.
Nevermind just crashing a truck bomb through the airport gate and detonating on the side of an airplane. Probably save time versus making a do it yourself SAM site.
You dont even need a guided anti air missile. Get a rocket that fly’s straight and you can just guesstimate the airplanes trajectory and fire it in its estimated flight path. HPM system would be null and void because the missile has no on board electronics. And this would work within the area the HPM is supposed to protect, landing and takeoff.
WHat good is a HPM system? making Northrop Grumman richer and an airliner only 1% more secure.
I agree with jtw on this one. Seems that this would just be wasted money. Regardless of the method, it should be fairly easy to build a guidance system that gets around this.
p.s. The bird thing was just anecdotal. I was in charge of testing a high power microwave transmitter and we killed quite a few birds in the process.
the system sees the ir signature, which cannot be hidden.
The microwaves will fry any electronic, doesnt need to be related to radar.
Also model rockets can rech about 1000 ft. not the 30000 ft. that airlines fly at. even at landing they are above 1000 ft until they are on the final aproach.
Even the best shoulder launched sam, the sa-14, can only reach 15,000 ft.
Why dont they just try to get a birdstrike. It can bring down any jet.
or what about just shooting it?
this system will work, but anybody with some common sense (weeds out about 99% of us) could figure out a way.
These terrorist are retarded in my opinion.
Then again they hit a civilian 737 over iraq and it made it to bagdad. Those planes are pretty tough.
The combination of this system and the ruggedness of our american made planes(unlike those crappy french ones) pretty much blowsw any way you could bring down a plane short of using plain old birds.
I can just see a bunch of arabs running around scaring birds =) that would be hilarious.
That pretty much means that we’e safe for now. unless they use non rockets. like a rc plane with a seeker. or one of these super fast rc jets.
The only thing is that a bunch of arabs doing anything near an airport are going to be watched 24/7 by americans. They would never have the chance to get any of these ideas to work.
even the truck bomb is unfeasable. it would be too hard to get that much explosive.
And, did you see that thing on tv where that van tried to get into an airport?
They creamed him as he was going trough the last line of fence. He didnt give any warning and they still stopped him.
I can’t believe all you so called smart people have fallen into the whole “Terrorist” thing. Are you scared of something? YES, our President is making sure you stay that way too.
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