TEL AVIV, Israel–Israel will become the first nation in the world to try to safeguard its commercial airline fleet against missile attacks after the Security Cabinet met here last week to discuss aviation security and decided to invest in Elbit Systems’ [ESLT] MUlti-Spectral Infrared Countermeasure (MUSIC) system beginning in 2008.
“The process of reinforcing Israeli planes against missiles is continuing…and an immediate budget allocation will be made for this purpose,” says Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s media adviser.
Ministers were briefed on a positive identification system designed to ensure that any plane entering–and flying in–Israeli airspace would be positively identified, the prime minister’s office says. “[This] would significantly reduce the danger of unidentified or hijacked airplanes entering Israeli airspace in order to perpetrate terrorist attacks.”
Industry sources tell our sister publication Defense Daily that Code Positive, another Elbit product, was the positive identification system referred to in the Cabinet’s statement.
In 2006, Israel approved Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) Flight Guard anti-missile self-protection system for use on passenger aircraft.
Flight Guard was originally designed for military aircraft then modified for installation aboard Israeli jet liners, which took place as an interim measure. However, Israel had already decided to pursue a longer-term Direct Infra-Red Counter-Measures (DIRCM) solution to protect wide-bodied aircraft from low altitude attack by shoulder fired man portable air defense (MANPAD) missile systems.
After this year’s Paris Air Show, Elbit’s El-Op electro-optics subsidiary and Italy’s Elettronica said they were generating together a laser-based DIRCM system based on MUSIC.
According to Elbit, the compact, roughly 55-pound system “provides the fastest response to missile attacks available today and is able to deal with 1,000 enemy missiles simultaneously.”
MUSIC is also designed for rotary-wing aircraft protection.