The Northrop Grumman Guardian is a passive anti-missile

countermeasure A countermeasure is a measure or action taken to counter or offset another one. As a general concept, it implies precision and is any technological or tactical solution or system designed to prevent an undesirable outcome in the process. The fi ...

system designed specifically to protect commercial

airliner An airliner is a type of airplane for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. The modern and most common variant of the airliner is a long, tube shaped, and jet powered aircraft. The largest ...

s from shoulder-launched missiles (commonly known as MANPADS), using directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) technology. According to ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', the program is now the subject of a lawsuit alleging that "in 2007 and 2008 the company intentionally inflated costs, presented false bills, lied about progress and withheld test data from the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...

Background

The extensive proliferation of MANPADS has resulted in many being available to non-state groups on the international arms black market, sometimes for as little as

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

5,000 each. This has resulted in a marked increase of MANPADS attacks on commercial airliners, including the failed 2002 Mombasa airliner attack, the

2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident On 22 November 2003, shortly after takeoff from Baghdad, Iraq, an Airbus A300B2-200F cargo plane, registered OO-DLL and owned by the Belgian division of European Air Transport (doing business as DHL Aviation), was struck on the left wing by a su ...

and the 2007 Mogadishu TransAVIAexport Airlines Il-76 crash. According to the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

, over 40

civilian A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is war crime, illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civi ...

aircraft have been hit with MANPADS since 1970, with about 400 passengers and crewmembers killed. Of these, six were

s. In 2003,

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

Barbara Boxer Barbara Sue Boxer (née Levy; born November 11, 1940) is a retired American politician, lobbyist, and former reporter who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United St ...

(D-CA) and

Congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

Steve Israel Steven Jay Israel (born May 30, 1958) is an American political commentator, lobbyist, author, bookseller, and former politician. He served as a U.S. representative from New York from 2001 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elect ...

(D-NY) introduced legislation in both the House and Senate (H.R. 580/S. 311 ''The Commercial Airline Missile Defense Act'') that directed the

(DHS) to sponsor a research and development program that would result in a missile defense system that could be installed on commercial airliners; the bill also authorized funding for the program. As a result, the DHS initiated the "counter-MANDPADS" or "C-MANPADS" program in January, 2004, which tasked several defense contractors to adapt existing military countermeasures systems to commercial usage.

Description

The Guardian incorporates existing

infrared countermeasures An infrared countermeasure (IRCM) is a device designed to protect aircraft from infrared homing ("heat seeking") missiles by confusing the missiles' infrared guidance system so that they miss their target (electronic countermeasure). Heat-see ...

military technology, adapted from the AAQ-24 Nemesis system, in a commercial package that has been tested and certified by the FAA under a

Supplemental Type Certificate A supplemental type certificate (STC) is a civil aviation authority-approved major modification or repair to an existing type certified aircraft, engine or propeller. As it adds to the existing type certificate, it is deemed "supplemental". In ...

for the

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...

, McDonnell Douglas DC-10/MD-10 and

McDonnell Douglas MD-11 The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner manufactured by American manufacturer McDonnell Douglas (MDC) and later by Boeing. Following McDonnell Douglas DC-10, DC-10 development studies, the MD-11 ...

. Guardian is designed to operate autonomously, without input from the flight crew. An array of sensors detects a missile approaching the aircraft and passes this information to an infrared tracking camera. The system's computer analyses the input signals, to confirm that the threat is real, and then directs a beam of an eye-safe infrared laser at the incoming object. The laser is intended to introduce a false target into the missile's guidance system, causing it to turn away from the aircraft. The detect-track-jam process lasts for two to three seconds. The system then automatically notifies the pilot and

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

that a threat has been jammed. The system is wholly contained in an external, 460 mm (18 inch) high pod that weighs 250 kg (550 lb) and is mounted to the underside of the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

. The pod is removable, and can be transferred to another aircraft within an hour. The system costs US$1 million per aircraft, and, when ongoing maintenance costs are also considered, Northrop Grumman estimates that the system will cost each passenger an additional dollar in ticket price.

Development

The Guardian was developed under a DHS program. In August, 2005, Northrop Grumman received DHS phase II design approval of the system after it met three main design review criteria. Also, as a part of Phase II of the DHS program, flight testing began in August, 2005 on a

FedEx Express FedEx Express is a major American cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. As of 2023, it is the world's List of largest airlines, largest cargo airline in terms of fleet size and freight tons flown. It is the namesake and leadi ...

. Flight tests were then conducted on a

which FedEx leased from Air Atlanta Icelandic. The flight tests were conducted at the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center with the aircraft flying simulated takeoff and landing profiles while being engaged by an electronic system that simulates missile tracking and launch events. The simulator reported tests to be 100% successful. A civilian version of the system is being developed under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Project CHLOE. The

Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia (United States), militia of each U.S. ...

has tested the system on the

Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling tanker aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It has a narrower fuselage and is shorter than the 707. Boeing gave ...

aircraft.

Deployment

The third phase of the program, costing US$109 million is the deployment of the system on commercial flights.

became the first air carrier to deploy the Guardian on a commercial flight in September 2006, when it equipped one of its MD-11 freighters with the pod, and subsequently equipped eight more aircraft for evaluation purposes. In view of the initially successful results, Congress directed DHS in October, 2006 to expand the program to include "a service evaluation in the passenger-carrying environment." This will result in 12 commercial airliners to be equipped with the system to gather data on the system's operational impact in regular service.

References

External links