The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States has submitted a proposal to the Department of Transportation, which attempts to allow FedEx cargo planes to install infrared countermeasures to defend against infrared guided missiles. Although this is not the first time infrared countermeasures have been provided for civilian aircraft, the proposal indicates that the need for missile defense still exists even in the field of civil aviation.The proposal from the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States states that "in recent years, there have been multiple incidents of civilian aircraft being attacked by portable air defense missile systems abroad." In response to this threat, the Federal Aviation Administration is seeking special airworthiness regulations for FedEx to install a system that "emits infrared laser energy outside the aircraft to counter infrared guided missiles. The Federal Aviation Administration of the United States pointed out that the current airworthiness regulations for civil aircraft lack relevant provisions for these systems.

The A321P2F and missile defense system that FedEx is about to purchase

The proposal indicates that FedEx is seeking to install a directed infrared countermeasure system (DIRCM) on its newly purchased cargo planes. This type of self-defense system is now widely used in military transport planes and helicopters, and is also installed in some fighter jets. The working principle of this system is to launch a specially designed infrared (IR) laser beam at incoming missiles, thereby blinding their guidance heads or at least directing the incoming missiles away from the aircraft they are aiming at.

Guardian Missile Defense System Pod

Northrop Grumman's directional infrared countermeasure system on FedEx MD-10

FedEx hopes to install the system on the A321P2F all cargo aircraft produced by Airbus, which is a remote version of the A321 passenger plane. The A321 is currently mainly used as a passenger aircraft, but its passenger to cargo conversion plan has been launched and orders have begun to be obtained. FedEx plans to replace the Boeing 757F freighter with the A321P2F, primarily for transportation in e-commerce logistics. At present, the A321P2F freighter is widely regarded by the industry as a replacement for Boeing 737 to 757 freighters.在之前的2004 年，以色列航空公司成為世界上第一家也是唯一為其飛機配備導彈對抗系統的民用航空公司，其配備的系統是基于消耗性的紅外曳光彈的，而不是DIRCM系統。不過，鑒于曳光彈在地面上引發火災的擔憂，以及它們的相對不穩定的火工品性質，促使客機后來轉向基于激光的其它防御系統，能更有效地抵御更高級的威脅。According to a report by the International Civil Aviation Organization, at least 42 civilian aircraft have been attacked by portable air defense missile systems in the past 50 years. Among them, an Israeli passenger plane carrying 260 passengers was hit by suspected portable air defense missile shrapnel while taking off from Mombasa Airport in Kenya, but ultimately landed safely in Tel Aviv with minimal damage. In addition, in 2003, a DHL cargo plane flying from Baghdad, Iraq to Bahrain was forced to make a difficult emergency landing after being hit on the left wing by a missile. This incident also caused a huge uproar in the aviation industry that year!

DHL A300 cargo plane hit by missile on left wing

In fact, FedEx began testing anti missile countermeasures on its aircraft as early as 2006, when it installed Northrop Grumman's "Guardian" system based on the AN/AAQ-24 military infrared jamming system on the MD-10 cargo plane produced by McDonnell Douglas. The system is a FedEx specific system designed by Northrop Grumman in collaboration with FedEx, installed on a canoe shaped belly pod that can be installed or removed in ten minutes with very little resistance. The system includes a spherical turret for emitting laser, as well as a UV missile approach warning system sensor facing the surroundings, which can provide 360 degree warnings and prompts for the laser turret. The device is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security's anti portable missile system program, which aims to develop and test anti missile systems for civilian aircraft. During the program, the Department of Homeland Security tested two different directed infrared countermeasure systems for 29 portable air defense missile systems, namely Northrop Grumman's "Guardian" pod system and BAE's "Jet Eye" system. The Department of Homeland Security evaluated over 16000 flight hours of testing and found that both systems "meet effectiveness requirements" and can withstand multiple missiles in many attack environments. The conclusion drawn from the comprehensive assessment conducted by the Department of Homeland Security since 2010 is that airlines can integrate these DIRCM systems at a considerable cost and have an impact on their operations, with an estimated cost of over $30 billion to equip 3600 aircraft with the system. The Department of Homeland Security also pointed out that due to the involvement of military equipment, export control issues need to be addressed before they can be promoted and used internationally.In fact, the United States is the main source of the proliferation of portable air defense missiles. Throughout the 1980s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States provided a large number of Stinger missiles to Afghan rebels fighting against the Soviet Union. The US government later launched a series of expensive and complex operations in an attempt to retrieve all remaining missiles, but many of them are still missing. In 2012, the US Consulate near Benghazi, Libya was attacked, and the mission of the local Central Intelligence Agency subsidiary was to retrieve as many portable air defense missiles as possible from the former Libyan government army's arsenal.The portable air defense missiles produced by Russia are currently the missiles that have fallen into the hands of terrorist organizations and rebels the most. The main reason is that countries equipped with these Russian missiles, such as Iraq, Syria, and Libya, have experienced serious internal strife or civil wars, resulting in a large number of such missiles losing effective control, which has raised concerns in the international civil aviation industry about the threat of such missile weapons. At present, it is impossible to count how many missiles ultimately fell into the hands of terrorist or criminal organizations.

Northrop Grumman's Guardian pod was installed for testing on an Air Atlanta Europe 747-300 leased to FedEx

The Federal Aviation Administration's document once again reminds people of the harm caused by air defense systems falling into the hands of bad people. At present, there is no clear plan from FedEx regarding the installation of defense systems, as well as the ultimate level and scale of popularization. As for whether other airlines will follow up and what kind of airworthiness standards the FAA will ultimately develop for such systems, we will wait and see!

Source: Military of Strong Countries