Israel’s commercial jets may soon be firing laser beams to thwart shoulder-launched missiles.
The country’s Ministry of Defense and defense contractor Elbit Systems announced last week that they had successfully completed a series of trials to certify the SkyShield.
C-MUSIC, the commercial version of SkyShield, uses lasers and a thermal camera to deflect incoming missiles by jamming. After detecting an incoming missile with an infrared sensor, the system fires a laser that disrupts the missile’s navigation system, taking it off course and detonating it safely away from the aircraft.
Development of the system began more than a decade ago after an attempt to shoot down an Israeli charter jet that had just taken off for Israel from Mombasa Airport in Kenya. Two missiles were fired at the aircraft, but missed the target and its 250 passengers.
"The system provides a response to the threat of shoulder-launched missiles held by terror organizations and provides comprehensive protection for the planes on which it is installed,” says Eitan Eshel, Ministry of Defense director of R&D for the ministry and a brigadier general in the Israeli Air Force. “The system allows identifying and jamming missiles shot towards planes using breakthrough technology and there are no similar such systems worldwide."
The system is to be implemented on El Al aircraft, but Elbit says it has contracts with several other countries around the world.
