The US administration on Tuesday named three companies -- including one British firm -- to develop and test equipment to protect civilian airliners from surface-to-air missile attacks.The Homeland Security Department announced that Northrop Grumman, United Airlines and the North American subsidiary of British-owned BAE Systems had been named for the program.
Charles McQueary, the department's under secretary for science and technology, told reporters the three would "develop a plan and test prototypes to help determine whether a viable technology exists that could be deployed to address the potential threat that MAN-Portable Air Defense Systems pose to commercial aircraft."
He said the goals included "the adaptation of military or commercial technologies as effective countermeasures ... proving a central protection for commercial aviation."
"These efforts are part of a larger undertaking by the administration that includes completing security assessments and implementing reasonable responsive measures at our nation's airports as well as working with our international partners to reduce the number of weapons potentially available to terrorists," he added.
McQueary said the program had a budget of two million dollars in 2003 and would pick up another 60 million dollars in fiscal 2004 and the same amount the following year.
The administration is "taking a very aggressive approach on measures to counter the potential threat of shoulder-fired missiles," added McQueary.
In 2002, a missile narrowly missed an Israeli jet carrying 260 tourists as it took off from Mombasa, Kenya. A similar missile in November hit a DHL cargo jet in Iraq, forcing an emergency landing.
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