The Laughing Wolf

Anti-Missile Defense on Commercial Aircraft

Since I have already heard news hosts mentioning this, I thought I would give a quick response.

No.

That is, not based on current technology.

Anti-Missile systems are expensive, complex, and not really designed for anything other than military aircraft. The two best known components of such systems are chaff and flares, though there are other components.

Expense is the real killer in many respects, as a good anti-missile system can and does cost in the millions of dollars. You also have to take a plane out of service for a period of time to install and test, then you have to train crews in how to use the system. Place this across a few thousand planes, and you have a recipe for economic disaster in an airline industry that is already on a knife edge.

Complexity is an issue in that such systems are not quite throw-a-switch-and-forget. There will need to be training, and yet more training to make them truly effective. This takes people out of use for said training, and it also requires them to be very tuned in during other complex operatons that will also require their attention, like takeoff and landing.

What is needed is a new generation of anti-missle systems aimed specifically at the commercial market, and there may already be some work done there that has not yet come to public attention. More later.

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