Guarding against missiles By Fred Bayles, USA TODAY Police and, in some instances, the National Guard are patrolling the=20 perimeters and flight approaches of airports in Los Angeles, Chicago,=20 Orlando and other major cities in an effort to stop terrorists from=20 shooting down passenger jets with shoulder-fired missiles. In San=20 Francisco, New York and Washington, Coast Guard boats keep watch near=20 waterfront runways. Boston Harbor clam diggers use cell phones to report=20 suspicious activity near Logan International. The increased surveillance is= =20 the first step in federal efforts to protect airliners that take off and=20 land an average of 170,000 times a day. Federal officials won't talk about= =20 pending strategies to prevent terrorists from launching heat-seeking=20 missiles at passenger planes. But an unreleased FAA study lists the use of= =20 airborne patrols, ground checkpoints, observation posts and high-intensity= =20 lights in areas adjacent to airports. Although there has never been an=20 attack in the USA and federal officials discount the immediacy of the=20 threat, some members of Congress have proposed putting anti-missile systems= =20 on airliners within the next year. One sponsor, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says that with thousands of the= =20 missiles on the black market and previous attacks on jets overseas, the=20 risk to the flying public and the airline industry is too great to not take= =20 action. "The damage a terrorist attack could do would be devastating,"=20 Schumer says. "Do you think anyone would fly for three to six months after= =20 an attack?" Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge also sees the possible=20 use of anti-missile systems on airliners in the future, but only after more= =20 study. "I think the first public dollars we ought to expend should be to=20 take a look at the technology itself to see if adaptation can be made," he= =20 told a gathering of reporters recently. Security experts agree there is no= =20 fast or easy fix. They say airport surveillance is limited against a weapon= =20 that can be launched from a pickup, boat or rooftop. Many shoulder-launched= =20 missiles can hit a jet 4 miles away at altitudes of more than 10,000 feet.= =20 According to the FAA report, that would give terrorists a 150-square-mile=20 area around an airport in which to hide and fire at aircraft that are=20 taking off or circling to land. Congress' hopes for a quick technological solution may be optimistic, too,= =20 they say. Adding a complex system of countermeasures to jets could take=20 years to do safely. "There is no silver bullet," says James Loy, head of=20 the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), which is responsible for air=20 travel safety. Some federal officials also caution that the threat of shoulder-launched=20 missiles may be overstated. So far, they have a poor record against=20 passenger jets; only one has been downed in six attacks. "These weapons=20 pose a threat, but there is no specific credible evidence that they are in= =20 the hands of terrorists in the United States or that they plan to use them= =20 to shoot down airliners," says Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the=20 Department of Homeland Security. The missiles, called Man Portable Air=20 Defense Systems, or MANPADS, weigh about 35 pounds and can be fired with=20 little training. Honing in on the heat from aircraft engines, the missiles= =20 travel at more than 600 mph, three times the takeoff or landing speed of an= =20 airliner. The U.S. version, the Stinger, contributed to the defeat of the=20 Soviet army in the 1980s in Afghanistan, where rebels used them to shoot=20 down assault helicopters and jet fighters. About 700,000 MANPADS have been= =20 produced worldwide since the 1970s. The most common is the 30-year-old=20 Russian SA-7 Strela. The British, French and Chinese also produce them.=20 Intelligence agencies say Al-Qaeda and 26 known terrorist groups have=20 dozens of the weapons. MANPADS have been used in 35 attacks against civilian airplanes in Africa,= =20 Asia, Afghanistan and Central America; 24 were shot down, killing more than= =20 500 people. All but one of the planes shot down were propeller planes. The= =20 only jet, a Congo Airlines Boeing 727, was shot down by rebels in 1998. In= =20 May, Al-Qaeda terrorists fired an SA-7 at a U.S. military jet taking off in= =20 Saudi Arabia. In November, terrorists launched two SA-7s at an Israeli=20 charter jet leaving Mombasa, Kenya. Both attempts failed. The day after the= =20 Mombasa attack, the White House formed a group to study the threat. In=20 December, the TSA surveyed about 80 major airports to identify=20 vulnerabilities. Two months ago, after London's Heathrow Airport was nearly= =20 shut down by concerns of a possible missile attack, the TSA and FBI visited= =20 22 of the largest airports to develop security plans. Officials decline to= =20 identify the airports or talk about specific tactics. But an FAA study,=20 initiated in 1996, points to possible countermeasures. They include: =B7 Denying terrorists access to areas around the airport. While the= =20 report considered this the most practical solution, it noted efforts would= =20 require manpower from federal, state and local agencies. It is also far=20 from certain. Capt. Steve Luckey, chairman of the Air Line Pilots=20 Association's security committee, says neighborhoods around urban airports= =20 such as Los Angeles International and San Diego offer too many hiding=20 places. "I don't know how you can defend an airport surrounded by miles of= =20 rooftops," he says. =B7 Changing flight operations. Pilots could take off in faster,=20 steeper climbs and descend in spiraling turns over the airport to reduce=20 time spent at lower altitudes. Such changes would be difficult. "It isn't= =20 something that can easily be accomplished given the fixed navigational aids= =20 used by the airplanes," says Ian Redhead of Airports Council International,= =20 an airport trade association. =B7 Installing countermeasures on airliners. Congress is considering a= =20 $30 million appropriation to test a system of lasers and other devices to=20 throw heat-seeking missiles off target. Military aircraft already use=20 flares and lasers to divert missiles. Air Force One and El Al airliners are= =20 believed to use similar devices. "The technology already exists," says=20 Schumer, who favors a bill that would require the system to be installed in= =20 5,000 airliners at an estimated cost of $8 billion. But aviation safety=20 experts say the use of flares and other incendiary devices creates safety=20 issues in the air and on the ground. They also worry about putting new=20 technology into the already complex systems of a jetliner. "It would take=20 five to 10 years to do the engineering work to add these systems to a fleet= =20 of different aircraft," says Kevin Darcy, a former accident investigator=20 for Boeing. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.carstt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************