The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded two $45 million contracts for further research into shoulder-launched-missile protection systems for commercial aircraft. BAE Systems, based in Nashua, N.H., and Northrop Grumman each got the nod to take its program to the Phase II level–a time period covering the 18 months from August this year through January 2006.
The companies’ programs are focused on adapting existing military systems to civilian use, and the awards come as part of a government push to investigate the viability of providing protection for the U.S. airline fleet. Still, the resulting economy of scale could benefit business jets too by increasing the sophistication of airborne protection systems and bringing down their prices. The programs that received the current funding approval are developing systems meant to detect and divert shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, so-called man portable air defense systems, or manpads.
