Israeli plane headed to UAE equipped with system to protect from missiles

The El Al plane that flew on Monday from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi, the first direct flight between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, was equipped with a system to protect aircraft against aerial threats like ground-to-air missiles.The Directed IR Countermeasures (DIRCM) manufactured by Elbit Systems defend aircraft by detecting, tracking and jamming incoming infrared threats like heat-seeking ground-to-air missiles and shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, also known as man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs).
El Al plane equipped with Elbit’s Directed IR Countermeasures (Credit: Elbit)The plane was equipped with extra security, as it was flying with a high-level American and Israeli delegation and with the plane’s flight path slated to take it over Saudi airspace.Elbit System’s DIRCM integrates the latest advanced fiber laser technology along with a high frame rate thermal camera and a small highly dynamic mirror turret. The four cameras can detect the launch of a missile and aim the laser beam towards the missile’s heat-seeking warhead to blind it and divert it from the aircraft.The system has been installed on commercial Israeli aircraft as well as the Italian Air Force’s C27J, C130J, and AW101 helicopter platforms as well as the Brazilian Air Force’s KC-390 and NATO’s NATO’s Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet (MMF).The system was installed over the last few days on the El Al plane. While commercial aircraft tend to fly at altitudes that are out of range of most surface-to-air missile systems, they are vulnerable during landings and takeoffs when they are still low enough to be targeted by missiles, including shoulder-launched missiles launched by terrorists near an airfield.The impetus for developing a missile defense system for commercial airliners came following the attempt by al-Qaeda to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane in Mombasa, Kenya in 2002.At the time, the missile barely missed the plane. Source

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