On August 25, the US Depart- ment of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it was moving ahead with Phase II of its Counter-MANPADS program, which is looking at the feasibility of installing electronic-countermeasures systems on commercial airliners to protect them from a possible terrorist attack using man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS). The DHS has decided to continue studying proposals from BAE Systems (Nashua, NH) and Northrop Grumman (Rolling Meadows, IL), both of which involve outfitting US commercial aircraft with laser-based, directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) systems. Dropped from the program was a proposal from a team led by United Airlines (Chicago, IL) that offered a solution based on special-material decoys (SMDs). Both BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman will now receive approximately $45 million over the next 18 months to continue their work under the Counter-MANPADS program.
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