|
BOSTON—Northrop Grumman Corp., the largest maker of
unmanned aircraft for the US military, demonstrated a
high-altitude defense that could be installed on
unpiloted drones to protect airports against
shoulder-fired rockets.
From
heights exceeding 50,000 feet, the system successfully
detected, tracked and directed a laser to intercept a
target missile, Jack Pledger, Northrop’s director of
infrared countermeasures, said in an interview. The
system worked in all three tests at Holloman Air Force
Base in New Mexico on September 8 and 9. A fourth test
was scrapped when the target malfunctioned.
The
trials were run under a $6.6- million contract from the
US Homeland Security Department to show the feasibility
of using unmanned aircraft above airports to defeat
shoulder-launched, heat-seeking missiles fired at
commercial aircraft. For the demonstration, Northrop
modified the Guardian countermeasure system it has
tested on jetliners for 13 months.
A
high-altitude system “would provide another layer of
protection to focus on heavy traffic areas, or areas of
concern,” Pledger said. “We demonstrated what can be
done today and what needs to be done to move this
technology forward.”
The
Guardian, which directs a laser to jam the heat-seeking
guidance systems on rockets, has acquired 10,000 hours
of flying time on 4,600 commercial flights. Northrop
modified Guardian for high altitude and tested it from
the White Knight aircraft that launched SpaceShipOne in
2004 as the first private, manned spacecraft. Northrop
bought Scaled Composites Llc., maker of White Knight,
last year.
Northrop
will deliver a report to Homeland Security by March 2009
on what would be needed for a complete unmanned,
high-altitude system, Pledger said.
Terrorists launched two missiles that narrowly missed an
Israeli passenger jet in Kenya in 2002.
Los
Angeles-based Northrop had sales of $32 billion last
year and is the world’s largest warship maker.
(Bloomberg) |
