US looks to anti-missile system for commercial aircraft

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, September 19, 2003

US looks to anti-missile system for commercial aircraft

The United States government is seeking proposals for developing an anti-missile system to protect commercial aircraft, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday.

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The United States government is seeking proposals for developing an anti-missile system to protect commercial aircraft, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday.

The department has announced a program to deal with the potential threat of shoulder-fired missiles to commercial aircraft, and a "pre-solicitation notice", released on Sept. 15, outlines its technological strategy for commercial air protection.

The department's science and technology division is now in the first step in a two-phase systems development and demonstration program for anti-missile devices for commercial aircraft. The first phase includes analysis of the economic, manufacturing and maintenance issues needed to support a system that will be effective on commercial planes, and the second phase includes the development of prototypes using existing military technology.

The Homeland Security Department has told defense contractors that it is seeking proposals, and the research and development phase for the anti-missile system is expected to take about one and a half years, officials said.

Congressional budget negotiators on Wednesday agreed to give the Department of Homeland Security 60 million US dollars in 2004 to start developing the technology, but a latest proposal calls for 100 million dollars in two years.

Costs for equipping the US commercial airliner fleet of about 6,800 planes are estimated at between 10 billion dollars and 100 billion dollars.

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