Why ? The company believes there is now a need to protect civilian aircraft from such attack . This is in the Wake Island of multiple projectile attacks that have materialize afield over the past few year , with one celebrated case being Malaysia AirlinesFlight MH17 .
“ In recent eld , in several incidents abroad , civilian aircraft were fired upon by man - portable air defense systems ( MANPADS ) , ” writes FedEx in their software .
“ This has led several companies to plan and adapt systems like a optical maser - based missile - denial system for installing on civilian aircraft , to protect those aircraft against heat - assay missile . The FedEx projectile - defense system directs infrared laser push toward an incoming projectile , in an effort to interrupt the projectile ’s tracking of the aircraft ’s heat . ”
The new systems would come into production on FedEx ’s Airbus Model A321 - 200 aircraft – not yet serving as part of the consignment fleet – but must first put on license from the regulatory body . Doing so may dumbfound a tricky undertaking , as while the infrared lasers are great at disrupting heat - search missiles , they may also damage the pilot and passenger within the aircraft .
At high enough tycoon , these lasers are adequate to of seriously damaging eyesight and even skin they come into link with – but while visible laser are relatively avoidable , infrared optical maser are invisible to the au naturel heart . As such , theydo not triggerthe " blink instinctive reflex " , grant the laser to continuously damage the retina of the unfortunate recipient .
To mitigate this peril , FedEx purpose multiple turning away strategies , as well as special cadence to be included in the safety standards to secure the laser are adequately pull off .
This is not the first time anti - missile defence systems have been put through in civilian aircraft . Flight Guard , manufactured by Elta systems , is a family unit of defense system that use radar to detect incoming threats and deploy countermeasure , and have been establish in aircraft in many of Israel ’s flight companies that regularly travel over high - risk areas .
FedEx themselves have even deployed a manoeuvre infrared system , blood-related to the modern version they are seeking approval for , on many of their aircraft , called theNorthrop Grumman Guardian . This was part of an active attempt by the Department of Homeland Security to repurpose military countermeasures for civilian craft follow multiple attacks by articulatio humeri - launched missiles ( MANPADS ) .
