Some Show News from AWST
Elta's Missile Protection System Goes Commercial
Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/16/2003, page 160
David A. Fulghum
Tel Aviv
Approval Sought for Flight Guard
At the simple, cheap and available end of the spectrum for devices
to protect airliners from infrared missile attack is Elta
Electronics Industries' Flight Guard system.
It's already installed on about 150 aircraft including those
operated for the presidents of several countries, and it reportedly
also protects signals intelligence gathering aircraft operated by
the Israel Air Force. Company officials say they hope to have the
system FAA and Israeli Civil Aviation Administration (CAA)
certified by the end of the year and that it will cost "less than
$1 million per aircraft."
The 200-lb. system detects approaching missiles with pulse Doppler
radar (with a continuous 360-deg. scan), alerts the crew to the
danger and simultaneously activates the automatic chaff and flare
dispensers. The radar uses six antennas--four in the radome and two
in the tail cone. The miniaturized, 1 in. X 1 in. X 1/8-in. flares
come in two dispensers filled with 10-in. magazines, one on each
side of the aircraft.
The current threat from 600,000 shoulder-fired missiles available
in the black and gray markets (about 10,000 of them unaccounted
for) include the SA-7, SA-14, SA-16, SA-18, Stinger and QH-1 and
several homegrown derivatives from Asia, Eastern Europe and the
Middle East, said an Elta official. They can sell for as little as
$3,000, and they can make the airspace lethal for airliners at a
range of 3 mi. and up to 12,000ft., if properly used.
The missiles can cover the distance to an airliner in less than 10
sec., making evasion difficult, he said. Current tactics are to use
two or four shooters positioned off the end of a runway with at
least two types of the light, portable surface-to-air missiles to
make it hard for defensive systems to cope with the varied threat.
Because the missiles are so small and light, they can be
transported and positioned without being detected.
Rafael System Fools Missiles With Unified Jamming Code
Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/16/2003, page 158
David A. Fulghum
Upper Galilee, Israel
New Rafael system fools missiles with unified infrared
countermeasures code
Jamming Cocktail
Rafael's new Britening protection system against infrared missiles
has two main building blocks: a missile warning system to give
notice of the direction of the threat and a countermeasures turret
with a pointer-tracker and an infrared source to shine--in a mix of
frequencies--into the seeker of the incoming missile to produce
false targets, said Patrick Bar-Avi, director of the company's
directional IR countermeasures effort.
The 350-lb. package was developed from Rafael's Dircm program for
helicopters, to protect large passenger aircraft instead. It was
designed to foil both surface-to-air and anti-tank missiles that
might be fired at an airliner during taxi, takeoff and landing.
Advocates of the system say there have been 29 incidents worldwide
when missiles were shot at commercial aircraft. Of the aircraft
attacked, 60% were shot down, according to Rafael data.
Large airliners have two major problems compared with smaller
aircraft like helicopters, said Bar-Avi. Their thermal signature is
much larger, perhaps 40-50 times. In addition, there are two or
four engines acting as separate, spread out heat sources a missile
can lock onto, he said. Using many conventional protection systems,
airlines would have to buy one for each engine, Bar-Avi said. He
contends that one, at most two, of his systems (at a cost of about
$1 million each for a fleet of 100 or more aircraft) would protect
any four-engine aircraft.
The first ground test of the system was conducted Mar. 9 at an
isolated Israel Air Force Base using the Boeing 757 aircraft that
was targeted at Mombasa, Kenya. Real missiles, employing several
generations of technology, were used to ensure accurate seeker data
was collected. Researchers put the aircraft on tripods, retracted
the landing gear and ran the engines at up to 90% thrust. The first
tests were conducted from directly behind the aircraft to produce
the maximum heat signature. The test was conducted at relatively
short ranges, Bar-Avi said, which would mean that flares from many
conventional systems would be out of the missile-seeker's field of
view before it could affect the missile's flight.
To counter the new lineup of threats, Israel's defense industries
are pulling a broad range of new products out of their
workshops.
Saddam Hussein's forces used at least five GPS jammers during their
recent conflict with the U.S. The jammers were destroyed by air
attacks and appear to have had little effect on bombing accuracy.
However, the jamming effort sent shock waves through the military
communities that depend heavily on the relatively cheap and
accurate GPS guidance for many of its weapons.
A number of companies are now proposing new, all-weather guidance
schemes for military forces that confront a foe who can put perhaps
1,000 or more jammers, of much higher quality than were used in
Iraq, into action. New products include:
* Spice air-to-surface missile. Rafael's missile division has
introduced its Spice air-to-surface missile kit, a derivative of
the Popeye and Have Nap weapons. The guidance system kit turns
1,000-lb. and 2,000-lb. dumb bombs (Mk.83, Mk.84 and BLU-109) into
precision strike weapons, even in the face of heavy GPS jamming,
with a standoff range of about 40 mi. from 42,000 ft., said Alon
Amitay, business development manager for air-to-surface systems.
That is considered sufficient standoff range to attack SA-2, SA-3,
SA-6 and SA-8 anti-aircraft missile sites. The BLU-109 can achieve
significant penetration of targets from up to 25 mi., he
said.
An optional data link can even offer battle damage assessment. The
weapon can use GPS navigation from even before launch from the
aircraft when the effects of jamming are least noticeable. If GPS
is unavailable or jammed, the weapon can be directed by an inertial
navigation system that can put it near the target's location. For
the terminal part of the weapon's flight, the Spice guidance kit
switches to an electro-optical sensor (IIR/CCD) that uses
target-matching templates--automatic target recognition (ATR)--to
positively identify the target, factor out target location error
and ensure a precision strike, he said. What's new is a
high-performance imaging sensor and increased processing power for
the ATR. On the ground, weaponeers can load tens of targets into
the weapon's guidance system and the pilot has only to make his
selection from the menu and fly into the launch basket. While
terrain and scene matching is used for a high-value target like a
command bunker, the pilot or weapons system officer also has a mode
for visual delivery. The kit costs $150,000-200,000.
* Litening pod enhancements. Rafael also is offering two new
capabilities in its famed Litening navigation and targeting pod, of
which the U.S. operates 250 so far. The pod offers an integrated
forward-looking infrared sensor, target range finding as well as
laser designation and marking. When used with a Paveway 3 precision
guidance kit with its enhanced flight surfaces and a data link, the
system has the capability to intercept moving targets, company
officials claim.
The company is also working on an addition to the Litening pod's
sensor system that will allow it to target and locate electronic
jammers. This would be a key improvement that would let the user
air forces quickly locate and destroy GPS jamming devices designed
to ruin the accuracy of GPS-guided weapons. The system could
obviously be paired with missiles equipped with Rafael's Spice
guidance package.
* Spike-ER air-to-surface missile. While Israeli government,
military and airframe manufacturers are pointedly refusing to
discuss their efforts to arm unmanned aircraft, Rafael contends its
Spike-extended range anti-tank missile, designed for use from
attack helicopters, will be far more effective than the missiles
currently used to provide an offensive punch to U.S.-operated
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The missile offers a dual
electro-optical and infrared seeker that can help locate concealed
targets, target identification and a standoff range of about 5 mi.
The missile also has a fire, observe and update mode that lets the
pilot lock onto the target and then allow the missile to fly
autonomously or monitor its flight to update the aim point or
change targets.
Israel's military space goals are deceptively simple.
Planners want a constellation of small, low-Earth orbit satellites
carrying a range of sensors, including a synthetic aperture radar
(SAR) with a resolution of well under a meter for day/night,
bad-weather observations. They consider such observations critical
for keeping track of potential foes, such as Iran and Libya, which
have long-range ballistic missile programs.
"We need intelligence," said Chaim Eshed, head of the defense
ministry's space programs. "We can't survive without it." He
predicts that in "three to five years, Israel will start its
breakthrough in space. For us it is a question of life."
A bit further off is the development of very small nano-satellites
that could be used to disable satellites. The thought is that
someday a Middle Eastern power (some analysts suggest that the
effort could be supported by North Korea's space program) might
launch a satellite that could gather intelligence on Israel, try to
intercept data gathered by its space constellation or even attack
individual satellites. "You need to defend yourself," Eshed said.
"We're not at that stage yet, but we're thinking about it. There is
an open, wide band of information that is vulnerable. Piracy or
guerrilla warfare in space has to be considered seriously.
"Two years from now, we will have a SAR demonstrator in the 650-lb.
class," he said. "It will need lots of processing capability, but
that's not a big challenge. The challenge will be to enhance and
distribute the data just the same as electro-optical imagery."
