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Air Force Study Rejects Alternative Defense For Airliners
By Marc Selinger
January 23, 2004
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A U.S. Air Force study conducted on behalf of the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) has concluded that a commercial airliner would not be
adequately protected if it were equipped with "aimpoint bias" technology
that steered a shoulder-fired missile to a less vulnerable part of the
airplane, according to Air Force researchers.
The study by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) looked at the
possibility of using aimpoint bias to protect commercial aircraft
against what some observers see as a growing threat from man-portable
air defense systems (MANPADS). Aimpoint bias was envisioned as a
potentially less expensive alternative to decoys, lamps, lasers or other
military-style countermeasures that are designed to steer a missile
completely away from an aircraft.
Some members of Congress have estimated that equipping the nation's
6,800 airliners with military-style countermeasures would cost $7
billion to $10 billion. Using aimpoint bias technology might cost only
about a third of that amount.
The concept of aimpoint bias calls for tricking a missile away from a
likely impact spot, such as an engine, and toward a less critical area,
such as a wingtip. But the AFRL study concluded that aimpoint bias might
actually make an airliner more susceptible to being shot down in some
cases. For instance, a missile that hit the wingtip could keep flying
and collide with the fuselage.
The study was completed in May 2003 but has not been publicly released.
The researchers' findings prompted DHS not to pursue aimpoint bias any
further, an Air Force researcher told The DAILY recently.
"DHS did not embrace aimpoint biasing as a concept to pursue and it was
dropped," the researcher said. "The aimpoint bias concept was rejected
fundamentally because it doesn't provide a robust countermeasures
capability against modern missiles."
DHS is still looking at how to protect airliners against MANPADS. The
department said Jan. 6 that it is negotiating contracts with three
companies - BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and United Airlines - to
provide detailed designs for military-style decoys or lasers (DAILY,
Jan. 7).
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