PLANES MAY HAVE A GUARDIAN POD USES LASER TO PROTECT AIRCRAFT FROM MISSILES.

Byline: MUHAMMED EL-HASAN Staff Writer

Northrop Grumman Corp. will begin regular flight-testing today of a system designed to protect commercial aircraft from shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles.

At the FedEx facility at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday, Northrop Grumman officials and California Sen. Barbara Boxer, the most vocal proponent of the technology on Capitol Hill, unveiled the system to the media and discussed its importance to homeland security.

Boxer, a Democrat, described the device, known as the Guardian system, as ``an important step toward protecting our homeland.''

Today's test on a FedEx MD-10 represents the first time such a system will be flight-tested on a regular commercial route. The Guardian will be tested on nine different FedEx planes through March 2008.

Weighing about as much as two airline passengers and their luggage, the Guardian is a pod that clings to the rear of a plane's belly. Four sensors on the pod watch for shoulder- launched heat-seeking missiles, also known as Man-Portable Air Defense Systems or MANPADS.

If such a missile is launched at the plane, a turret on the pod shoots a laser at the missile to disrupt its guidance signals and throw it off course. The laser does not actually destroy the missile. The invisible laser beam is safe to the human eye, Northrop said.

The Guardian uses about as much electricity as a handheld hair dryer and can be installed on a commercial plane within 9 1/2 minutes, said Jack Pledger, director of Infrared Countermeasures Business Development at Northrop.

The technology is based on a Northrop-made military system called the Nemesis that is used mostly on cargo planes such as the C-17 and C-130.

Boxer and Northrop officials cited the FBI's warnings of the threat from such missiles and an unsuccessful 2002 MANPADS attack on an Israeli airliner in Kenya.

The Guardian program is based at Northrop's Defensive Systems Division in the Chicago suburb of Rolling Meadows, where the pods are assembled.

Tom Anthony, an aviation security expert at USC, said finding a defense against shoulder-held missiles is a priority.

``The FAA needs to start talking with the aircraft manufacturers to consider design requirements that would improve the ability to withstand a MANPADS attack,'' said Anthony, director of the aviation safety and security program, part of the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC.

Northrop estimates it would cost about $1 million to fit each aircraft, with a total cost to the U.S. airline industry of about $7.5 billion.

muhammed.el-hase(at)dailybreeze.com

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On Guardian

A pod system that is designed to protect commercial aircraft from shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles.

Clings to the rear of a plane's belly.

Weighs about as much as two airline passengers and their luggage.

Shoots a laser at the missile to disrupt its guidance signals and throw it off course.

Uses about as much electricity as a handheld hair dryer.

Can be installed on a commercial plane within

9 1/2 minutes.

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On Guardian (see text)