Raytheon airport grids would divert missiles
Raytheon Co. is set to disclose at the Paris Air Show today that it is joining the effort to protect commercial aircraft from shoulder-fired missiles with a new technology: a system of infrared sensors and microwave beams that would shield airports and divert missiles away from planes.
Called the Vigilant Eagle system, it would position a grid of infrared sensors on cellphone towers and buildings around airports. When it detected a heat-seeking missile launched at a passenger jet, it would steer an electromagnetic beam at the missile to divert it. It would also determine the launch point and quickly notify security officials.
''We've got a good solid concept at this point," said Mark P. Slivinski, product strategy manager for Raytheon's missile systems unit in Tucson, where work on the system is being done. ''Now we're asking the government to look at it to see if would be effective."
Raytheon has been secretly developing the system for years, with funding from the Air Force Research Labs. Though the program was recently declassified, the Waltham firm continues to keep some details under wraps, declining to say how much money the military and Raytheon have invested or where the system was tested.
Slivinski said company officials have been giving classified briefings about the technology to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies in an effort to win a contract to build a prototype. He said the company has about a dozen design engineers ready in Arizona if the funding comes through.
While the program could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to Raytheon down the road, the firm first would have to convince homeland security officials that its airport-based technology would be superior to an existing system, installed on the planes, that is already in use on about 300 military aircraft. Civilian prototypes of the laser-based technology, built by Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, will be tested on airliners this year.
Raytheon's system would protect planes over a range of tens of miles, depending on the number and configuration of sensors, where they are most at risk: near airports.
One advantage of the Raytheon system would be its lower implementation cost, Slivinski said. He estimated it would cost about $25 million per airport to install the technology at the nation's 30 largest airports, which together account for about 70 percent of US air traffic. That would be a fraction of the cost of installing the onboard systems on the nation's fleet of airliners, Slivinski said. A Rand Corp. study, in January 2005, estimated it would cost $11 billion to equip all US passenger jets with the laser-based technology.
James S. Chow, senior engineer at Rand, a Washington think tank, said it could be at least five to 10 years before either technology, or a combination of both, will be deployed widely in the United States if funding is approved. Chow said it is not yet cost-effective to equip the nation's 6,800 airliners with antimissile systems, and questions remain about the reliability of the systems.
''It's an interesting technology," Chow said of Raytheon's Vigilant Eagle system. ''It's probably not as well developed yet as the airborne laser system, and it's probably not something that could be used alone. But if you could demonstrate its effectiveness at airports, perhaps it could be used as part of a layered defense system."
One issue facing both laser and microwave antimissile technology is what happens to a missile when it is diverted from an aircraft. Neither system is currently able to destroy the missile, so there would be a chance -- statistically small, contractors say -- that it could strike a building or other structure. If that were to happen, the impact would be far less catastrophic than if the missile hit a plane loaded with people and fuel, and the plane then fell to the ground. Moreover, some missiles are equipped with devices that disable warheads if they don't strike targets within a specified time.
Counterterrorism officials have worried for years about the vulnerability of American passenger jets to shoulder-launched missiles. More than 500,000 of those missiles are estimated to have been built by the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China, and at least some have made their way into the hands of terrorists in the past decade.
While there have been no missiles fired at planes in the United States, there have been dozens of incidents reported abroad, mostly in war zones. In November 2003, a shoulder-launched missile hit a DHL cargo jet taking off from Baghdad International Airport, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing.
The Homeland Security Department has awarded contracts to BAE and Northrop Grumman under a two-year, $123 million initiative to reengineer for civilian use antimissile technology now used on military aircraft. Both contractors are developing prototypes that will be installed this summer and fall on three airliners from the fleets of American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and Federal Express. Northrop Grumman earlier developed the antimissile systems now deployed on more than 300 military aircraft, from bombers to helicopters to airlifters, said Katie Lamb, a Northrop Grumman spokeswoman in Rolling Meadows, Ill.
''We are open to all technological alternatives," said Donald Tighe, a homeland security spokesman in Washington.
A spokesman for Logan International Airport expressed immediate interest yesterday in the new Raytheon antimissile technology. ''Obviously, we're interested in any technology that enhances security," said Logan spokesman Phil Orlandella. ''We want companies to show us their products on anything involving security."
Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com. 