FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

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FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#1 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Jan 14, 2022 10:42 pm

FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets
FedEx says it wants to install a missile-defense system that “directs infrared laser energy toward an incoming missile ... to interrupt the missile’s tracking of the aircraft’s heat.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel ... -rcna12298

Delivery giant FedEx is asking federal regulators for permission to install countermeasures in its cargo jets designed to thwart missile attacks, according to a notice published in the Federal Register.

“In recent years, in several incidents abroad, civilian aircraft were fired upon by man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS),” FedEx says in the public notice. “This has led several companies to design and adapt systems like a laser-based missile-defense system for installation on civilian aircraft, to protect those aircraft against heat-seeking missiles.”

FedEx adds that it wants to install a missile-defense system that “directs infrared laser energy toward an incoming missile, in an effort to interrupt the missile’s tracking of the aircraft’s heat.”

The company notes that infrared laser energy can pose a hazard to people on the aircraft, on the ground, or on other aircraft, and it proposes a series of steps to mitigate that danger. The system would have to be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.

FedEx says it wants to install the system in the Airbus A321-200 airplane, a model it does not yet fly as part of its fleet of more than 650 aircraft. The company did not respond to NBC News requests for comment.


2015 Report: MH17 Shot Down With Russian-Made Buk Missile
OCT. 13, 201502:22
Anti-missile systems have been installed in U.S. commercial aircraft as far back as 2008. The Israeli passenger carrier El Al introduced a missile defense system in 2004.

Hundreds of people were killed in two high-profile missile attacks on aircraft in recent years — attacks that appear to have stemmed from misidentifications.

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 from Tehran to Kyiv was shot down shortly after takeoff by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which later said it mistook the plane for a cruise missile.

A Malaysia Airlines passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down in 2014 while flying over eastern Ukraine, in what international inquiries concluded was a botched operation by Russian-backed separatists.

In 2003, a DHL cargo jet was hit by a missile after taking off in Baghdad, but the three person crew was able to land the plane safely.

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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#2 Post by llondel » Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:35 pm

So you try to stop the missile homing in on the hot engine by shining an even hotter light at it in the hope that it'll home in on that instead? I assume they're actually trying to zap the IR detectors or saturate them to the point where they can't figure out a peak on which to home in.

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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#3 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sat Jan 15, 2022 7:11 am

llondel wrote:
Fri Jan 14, 2022 11:35 pm
So you try to stop the missile homing in on the hot engine by shining an even hotter light at it in the hope that it'll home in on that instead? I assume they're actually trying to zap the IR detectors or saturate them to the point where they can't figure out a peak on which to home in.
I guess Fedex hope to use a very powerful pulse to knacker or "confuse" the IR detector, as you say! High power and relatively expensive and not necessarily optimal in cloud and dusty conditions. Flares would probably give much the same result at a fraction of the cost.


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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#4 Post by k3k3 » Sat Jan 15, 2022 10:52 am

The way it was explained to me was that when a solid fuel rocket motor ignites there is an initial flash of UV, the aircraft has four sensors which detect this flash and determine in which quadrant the threat is in, then the lasar turrets extend looking for the continuous IR of the missile, once detected a high power IR laser fires at the missile blinding the seeker head. All automatic, the only thing in the cockpit is a display similar to TCAS that shows what is happening and where, and an on/off switch.

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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#5 Post by Ex-Ascot » Mon Jan 17, 2022 7:01 am

Technology has progressed since we fitted them to the VC10 but in those days you had to know the type of missile and set the IR to the correct frequency. Just pulling off stand in Toronto with the PM and half the cabinet on board we were told by ATC that British security in London had called them and thought that we could be targeted on take off. I said just ask them what setting. They got it to us just as we were about to take off. Well I am still here so it either worked or no one shot at us.

I did the trials on them over Salisbury plain. Jolly good excuse to fly a heavy four jet around at 100' :-bd :YMPARTY:
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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#6 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Jan 17, 2022 2:02 pm

Don't you just love it when you are ordered to have fun? :YMAPPLAUSE: :-bd :YMPARTY:

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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#7 Post by Ex-Ascot » Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:09 am

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Mon Jan 17, 2022 2:02 pm
Don't you just love it when you are ordered to have fun? :YMAPPLAUSE: :-bd :YMPARTY:

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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#8 Post by Boac » Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:10 am

100ft in a shiny 10?? Hold me back =))

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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#9 Post by Ex-Ascot » Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:55 pm

Boac wrote:
Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:10 am
100ft in a shiny 10?? Hold me back =))
Do you remember the C130 on Salisbury plain who flew so low with the ramp open that he took the head off a pongo standing up in a Land Rover. His head hit the ALM standing on the ramp. Think he is still in a loony bin.
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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#10 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Jan 18, 2022 4:20 pm

Head/disconnect.

Or did you mean the pilot?

Can RyanAir be described as a looney bin?

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Re: FedEx wants to install anti-missile lasers in its cargo jets

#11 Post by Boac » Tue Jan 18, 2022 4:51 pm

Sadly I do. I recall the problem was he pitched as he overflew thus dropping the tail. A tragic and unnecessary accident.

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